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• 1 2022-06-16T12:37:12-07:00 When was this made? 15 plain 2023-01-15T09:15:10-08:00
  
  This green ceramic harpy bowl was made around the year 1250.
  
  
  Another eastern Mediterranean harpy bowl made around the same time, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, depicts the harpy wearing a crown that seems to be influenced by an early Sasanian traditions. The Sasanians were pre-Islamic rulers or Persia or Iran.  This motif of spreading wings was common imagery used to depict crowns on Sasanian rulers.
  
  
• 1 2022-06-15T11:54:29-07:00 What is this? 13 plain 2023-01-15T09:08:10-08:00 This brightly colored, green ceramic bowl is decorated with an ornate design and a central figure of a harpy. The creature in the center conveys power and elegance with its highly intricate details and striking depiction. 
  
  The front of the bowl is bordered with a repetitive vegetal design and swirling scrolls. This mesmerizing design surrounds and contains the harpy. The harpy engages us directly with piercing almond eyes. She wears a distinct three pointed crown and beaded earrings. Her plumage is decorated with luxurious detail including linear patterns and curling designs. Despite the harpy's elegance, ferocious and vicious talons extend from her feet. Her head is at a tilt and her earrings mirror this tilt, swinging as if she was in motion, possibly just landing or about to take off in flight. She is so powerful that the vines around her sway in different directions.
  The back of the bowl contrasts with the front, showing the same colors in inverse. A black background foregrounds large six bright green spirals and hashtag-like designs. The simple design of the back of the bowl allows the front design to shine and be the center of attention. 
  
  Historically, in classical Greek tradition, the harpy has appeared as a siren-like creature who lures men to their deaths. However, the harpy on this bowl was inspired by Islamic traditions and suggest health, happiness and prosperity. To learn more about the harpy motif on this bowl click here.
• 1 media/11_12_decosgraffito_ramsaybowl.jpg 2022-06-15T11:55:08-07:00 How was this made? 11 plain 2022-11-20T08:54:14-08:00 This bowl was molded out of clay into the desired shape. Most likely, the clay was thrown and fired in the same Black Sea area. The bowl’s striking green color was the result of a pigment derived from copper.
  
  
  
  To achieve the unique, ornate design the potter would have used the sgraffito technique. Byzantine potters were masters of the sgraffito technique, as seen in our bowl. The sgraffito technique was developed by Middle Eastern and Muslim potters. The sgrafitto technique is when a white slip would have been laid down first on the shaped clay, then the design would be scraped into the slip, and finally a monochromatic glaze (green in this case) would be painted over it which would reveal the dark line work of the design and figure. The same technique was used to make the design on the outside of the bowl; however, a darker glaze was put on it. After firing in the kiln, the product would have a beautiful shine and bright green color. 
  
  The sgraffito technique was not only important to the design of the bowl but also tells us more about what locations of the Byzantine world that were producing these ceramics. The sgraffito technique appearing alone on a ceramic bowl was distinct and allows scholars to hone in more specifically to the place different groups of Byzantine ceramics were made. 
   
• 1 media/ObjectKingsand Caliphs.jpg 2022-06-15T11:57:07-07:00 Late Byzantine Bowl with Harpy on Interior (DO BZ.1958.103) 10 plain 2022-11-13T12:26:16-08:00 44.588935, 33.506707 By: Grace Toshach '23
  
• 1 2022-06-15T11:56:15-07:00 What does this tell us about the Crusades? 10 plain 2023-01-15T11:08:41-08:00 It was the invasions of the Muslim Seljuk Turks into Byzantine territories that led to the call for the First Crusade in 1095. After the Seljuk Turks conquered formerly-Byzantine areas, these areas were also open to diverse peoples from Iran and central Asia who were primarily Muslim. Byzantine inhabitants and their incoming Muslim neighbors often fought but also exchanged ideas and designs, as we see in this bowl.  This bowl was probably made in the Black Sea region, perhaps by a Byzantine potter in a Black Sea (Chersonese) workshop. The harpy was a common Islamic motif and now appears on this Byzantine bowl.
  
  The crusades were a time of extensive trade and travel that influenced the art of the European world. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Italian mercantile cities, like Venice, began controlling a lot of Byzantine ceramic trade within the eastern Mediterranean.  Shipwrecks reveal the large quantity of ceramics that were traded over long distances.In addition to long-distance trade, it would be easy for a crusader to acquire this artifact at a shop or market in the eastern Mediterranean and bring it back to Europe. Our bowl's unique iconography would refer to their experience in the Holy Land and showcase the crusader's travels there. Ceramics from the eastern Mediterranean would be valuable to a European crusader, acting as a reminder of their crusading experience.
• 1 2022-06-15T11:55:01-07:00 Why was this made, and how was it used? 8 plain 2022-11-11T10:31:45-08:00
            Ceramic wares were generally made to be used to store and cook food. However, in the Mediterranean making ceramic bowls became an artform with the utilization of the technique, sgraffito. The sgraffito technique was developed by Muslim potters to highly decorate ceramic ware with intricate designs. Muslims are forbidden from eating with metal ware and sgraffito allowed for their ceramic ware to have an elevated level of design that was missing from regular ceramic ware. Learn more about the sgraffito teachnique here. Highly decorated ceramics were more likely to be used as decoration and for special occasions. 
  
            This ceramic bowl with a harpy is distinct in its unique design and iconography. The harpy on this bowl, and other examples, would be recognized in the Eastern Mediterranean as an Islamic motif that symbolizes health, happiness and prosperity. Most of these examples of harpies are crowned with a three-pointed crown and luxiourious jewlery, like earings. These three pointed crowns are remniscient of Persian and Turkish rulers. A good example are these depictions of 11th century Seljuk Sultans displayed to the right. The courtly status of the harpy was recognized due to the creature's history of victory and glory. The crowned harpy was associated with higher class and seen as a symbol of those who were the bringers of food and drink. Due to this elevated status, this bowl was probably be gifted to a person of significance, like someone of the courts.