This page is referenced by:

• 1 2021-11-03T13:50:41-07:00 What is this? 37 plain 2023-01-14T11:11:40-08:00 By Grace Morrissey '22
  
  This figural Islamic bowl from the Worcester Art Museum is an example of a luxury lusterware ceramic. This bowl was created by artisans from Rayy, Iran between 1200-1299 during the height of lusterware production. Lusterware ceramics are incredibly complex to manufacture as they require specialized metallic oxide glazes and multiple firings in the kiln. The materials and time intensive nature of production made lusterware an expensive luxury item. Lusterware's shimmering surface quality and metallic sheen made these ceramics aesthetically attractive which fostered an appreciation across cultures. Members of the Islamic royal courts and later European crusaders used these ceramics as luxury feast ware.
  
  
  The WAM's figural Islamic bowl is unique in that its shimmering luster glaze and repetitive patterning create a sense of visual rhythm and energy on the bowl’s surface. However, its material and patterning also speak to its function as a piece of luxury court dinnerware. The underlying geometric organization, repetitive patterning, and lusterware materiality constitute the three most striking visual elements of this bowl, and these elements come together to create a rich visual dynamism. The bowl's interior decoration is marked by a clear underlying geometry, as its pattern can be broken up into eight trapezoidal segments, delineated by radiating bands that originate from two concentric circles at the bowl's center. These underlying geometric elements create a sense of aesthetic consistency, order, and visual rhythm within the piece, while also establishing an organized visual clarity in the bowl's surface decoration. This clarity is further established by the bowl's monochrome reserve coloring. Reserve coloring is a term used to refer to a lustreware done in only two colors, with white acting as the base color. In this example golden brown luster is painted onto a creamy white base, thus reserving the bowl's figure and decorative elements in white. Monochrome reserve coloring has predominated Islamic lustreware since the 10th century. The use of a single luster color enabled ceramicists to create clearer figural decoration, as new motifs such as animals, birds, and human figures, were being incorporated with traditional geometric and vegetal motifs at this time.
  
  The WAM bowl's decorative patterning is characterized by a fusion of geometric elements with organic scroll forms and a centrally located figure. The center of the bowl's decorative composition is anchored by a singular seated figure in a roundel. The seated figure gazes off to the viewer's left, and is shown wearing a headdress and garments with an intricate scroll and dot pattern. This figure is ambiguous in terms of its gender, but scholarship on lusterware iconography points to the figure's identification as a seated ruler or royal.
  The scroll patterning of the figure's clothing is mimicked by scroll flourishes on the bowl's exterior, visually linking this patterning across the entirety of the three-dimensional ceramic form. Three-dimensionality is an important element of this bowl, as its patterning would have been seen differently depending on the viewer's angle or if the bowl was filled or empty. This bowl is 8 inches wide and 3 1/8 inch tall, making it slightly larger than an average cereal bowl. Its shape is characterized by its straight flaring sides and small foot on which it is elevated. The date, patterning and shape of this bowl provide evidence that it was manufactured in the Kashan style which was developed in the last years of the 12th century by Seljuk luster potters. Kashan style ceramics are known for their straight flare sides, and complex red-brown luster designs. Kashan patterns often featured motifs of seated figures of nobles in roundels embellished by tendrils and tiny scratched scrollwork, similar to the decorative scheme in this bowl. These elaborate decorative patterns were not only painted on the bowl’s interior, rather complex reserve compositions carried over onto a ceramic’s exterior as well.
  
  Finally, the bowl's lusterware also develops the work's visual rhythm and gives viewers a sense of its luxury status. Covering ceramics in luster glaze creates an iridescent, metallic sheen across their surface. This shimmer not only complements the WAM bowl's dynamic patterning and reserve coloring fostering a sense of visual rhythm, but also speaks to the bowl's luxury use. From the beginning of lusterware production in the 9th century, these ceramics were intended for use in Islamic royal courts, as their brilliant surfaces reflected the richness of gold and silver. These bowls were primarily used as luxury feast ware, that served and held food at lavish royal banquets and feasts. Lusterware was highly valued for its shimmering surface quality, and was described by medieval viewers as "reflect[ing] like red gold and shin[ing] like the light of the sun." Thus the WAM bowl's patterning, coloring, and sheen not only create a dynamic aesthetic, but also speak to its luxury status, as the figuration of a ruler and golden shimmer clearly denote this bowl as a luxury item. Taking the complexity of technique and materials needed to create lusterware into consideration, the bowl's materiality speaks to its expensive prestige. Thus the WAM's Figural Islamic Bowl stands out in terms of both its aesthetic decoration and its materiality, both of which speak to the bowl's luxury status that was valued by Crusaders and other populations, both within and beyond the eastern Mediterranean. 
   
• 1 2021-11-03T13:51:10-07:00 When was this made? 23 plain 2022-06-13T11:34:47-07:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  The Worcester Art Museum's Figural Islamic Bowl is dated from the thirteenth century, between 1200-1299. This date is significant because it overlaps with the Golden Age of Persian (modern day Iraq and Iran) lusterware production, from 1195 to the Mongol invasions of 1223.

  Lusterware production has a long history of production, beginning in the 8th century when Egyptian Islamic craftsmen attempted to apply the metallic pigment to glasswares. However application on glass was aesthetically unsuccessful with the luster paint leaving dark stains on the glass surface, as opposed to shimmering lustrous designs.It is not until the 9th century, that we see luster painted ceramics being produced by Mesopotamian potters under the Abbasid Caliphate (719-258). The Abbasid Caliphate is the second caliphate of successors to rule after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. It is important to situate lustreware production within the cultural context of Islam, as traditionally "minor" or decorative arts were held in high esteem in Islamic art. Islamic artisans were known to transform humble everyday objects into captivating works of art, through their use of elegant forms and richly patterned surfaces. The development of lustreware's shimmering surface quality is considered to be one of the greatest inventions ever made by Islamic potters. Persian lusterware from the late 12th and early 13th centuries is considered the pinnacle of lusterware production in terms of aesthetic design, new ceramic forms, material quality, and development of technique. Under the Persian Seljuks - Turkish nomads from Central Asia, and the Il-Khanids - members of the Mongol empire, lusterware ceramic production was taken to new heights. Persian wares drew on previous Egyptian Fatimid examples, but developed new shapes and decorative techniques. Lusterware has since traveled from its point of origin in Basra in Southern Iraq, to Iran, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. It was later adopted by European and American ceramicists, and lusterware ceramics are still produced today. 

  Over the course of its production the aesthetics and designs associated with lusterware have developed as the practice has moved from region to region. The earliest Abbasid luster ceramics were intricately decorated in polychrome, with up to three or four colors at a time. However this early mixing of luster designs, ranging in color from deep-red to yellow-brown, resulted in congested vegetal patterns and visually overwhelming compositions. Thus, by the 10th century, artisans began producing monochrome luster which allowed for greater clarity of design. Artisans also began experimenting with different aesthetic decorative motifs, incorporating new figuration in the form of animals, birds, peacock eyes, and human figures with traditional geometric and floral patterns. Despite lusterware ceramics being an Islamic art form, figuration was permitted on these dishes and bowls due to their use in secular, royal contexts.

  However, shifts in color and patterning were not the only developments in lusterware aesthetics, as design compositions, scale, and ceramic shapes also evolved considerably. Lusterware production in the early 12th century under the Egyptian Fatimids was characterized by a new more naturalistic style. After the destruction of the Arab Nasrid Dynasty by Christian rulers, potters in Málaga - Spain's first important luster production site - produced elaborate works with European Gothic motifs. Under the Persian Seljuks, the potters of Kashan developed a new ceramic body made of ground quartz, white clay, and potash. This enabled the production of thin-walled vessels that could be sculpted into a variety shapes and sizes, with a range of elegant profiles. These Persian ceramics were then decorated in the early "Monumental style," characterized by its clear reserve coloring and large scale figures, or the "Miniature style" which dates from the last quarter of the twelfth century. The Kashan "Miniature" style is derived from manuscript illumination techniques and the intricate decorative techniques of mina'i enamelware pottery. Miniature style lusterwares retained the rendering of figures in reserve, seen in the Monumental style, but the brushwork was more rapid and freeform and rendered on a much smaller scale. The last aesthetic style of the Seljuk potters, known as the "Kashan" style, developed in the final years of the 12th century and soon became the dominant style of luster painting. There is even a recorded master of the Kashan style, Abu Zaid, who's signed works still survive in both the Kashan and miniature styles. The Kashan style is an amalgamation of the Monumental and Miniature styles, and is known for its elaborate compositions painted onto both the interior and exterior of flare-side bowls. Kashan decorative schemes - often depicting rulers seated in centrally located roundels - are rendered in clear reserve coloring with moderately scaled figures, however they also incorporate detailed tendrils and tiny scratched scrollwork into its designs. The Worcester Art Museum's Figural Bowl is an example of luster done in the Kashan style, as  exemplified by the hybridity of its patterning and use of line, and straight flaring sides.  

  Around the year 1220, lusterware manufacture in Kashan began to decline with the invasion of the Mongols into Western Iran, and the retirement of Kashan's two preeminent potters. Production of lusterware never returned to the quality and quantity achieved during the Persian Golden Age. However, despite the closing of Kashan's kilns, the technique of lustreware has not been lost and its earliest examples have remained highly sought after by both museums and private collectors.

• 1 2021-11-03T13:51:45-07:00 How was this made? 19 plain 2022-06-13T11:35:50-07:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22
  
  The production of lustreware is incredibly complex, requiring several stages of production, two kiln firings, and the use of expensive, specialized metallic oxide glazes. This materiality made the production of lustreware ceramics time-intensive and extremely expensive. 
  The first step in creating a lustreware is to shape the ceramic's body - or form - from raw earthenware, and let it dry.
  The second step is to coat the ceramic in a special lead glaze made with tin oxide that would make the ceramic's body an opaque white.
  After this coating the ceramic is then fired in the kiln for the first time.
  Typically, ceramics only go through these first three steps; however, luster manufacture requires several additional stages. 
  
  After this initial firing, luster ceramicists would then paint on the luster glaze decoration. The colors and tones of these metallic luster paints are incredibly nuanced, and the inclusion of different chemical compounds results in different colors. It is the presence of these silver and copper oxides, typically mixed with clay and ochre, that create the iridescent sheen on the ceramic. At first, lusterware was predominately polychrome including blues, greens, reds, and yellow ochres; however during the 10th century monochrome lusters became popular. The two predominant luster monochromes are red-brown and yellow-brown, which are produced from copper oxide and silver oxide respectively. This shift towards monochrome has persisted since it was first introduced as it enabled ceramists to create stronger, less visually ambiguous designs. The technique of painting on the luster after the ware's initial firing allowed for greater artistic freedom in terms of brushstroke and use of fine lines, making lusterware ceramics some of the most painterly and complex in design.
  
  The vessel is then fired for a second time in a special, smokey kiln at a lower temperature. This creates a "reducing atmosphere" that will deprive the metallic oxides in the luster paint of oxygen, causing them to break down and deposit metallic compounds on the ceramic's glazed surface in a thin film. The kiln temperature is regulated to remain approximately 600 degrees fahrenheit, which softens the initial layer of glaze enough to receive the deposits.
  
  However, the creation of the luster’s metallic sheen is not completed until the ceramic is cooled and the potter is able to rub the surface with a cloth to bring out the luster's shine. It is this final rubbing that creates an iridescence on the ceramic’s urface and finalizes its luster manufacture.

  This multi-step process is not only time and energy intensive, but requires specialized equipment in terms of a kiln and specific oxide-mixed paints. The additional materials and extra fuel required for the second firing results in luster production being both expensive and limited in quantity. However, the production of lusterware was also a testament to a ceramicist's skill, as they needed to control for several variables during the glazing and firing process. 

  Materiality is the single most important element of this bowl as it not only enhances its aesthetic dynamism, but also speaks to when, who, and how the bowl was used.

• 1 2021-11-03T13:52:43-07:00 What does this tell us about the Crusades? 14 plain 2022-06-13T11:43:37-07:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  This bowl's connection to the Crusades is not visually evident, there is no use of religious imagery, no clear evidence to suggest a specific transfer from Muslim merchant to European Crusader, and no presumed change in its use. Instead this bowl asks viewers to consider what is valued across cultures; namely beauty and money.
  
  Visually striking, the Worcester Art Museum's Figural Islamic bowl is characteristic of Islamic ceramics as seen in its dynamic geometric and figural patterning, bold reserve coloring, and luster sheen. This figural bowl's visual rhythm and shimmering surface were valued by Islamic courts and Crusaders alike, simply in terms of beauty. However lusterware bowls also had financial value. Technically complex, time-intensive, and requiring the use of specialized materials, these ceramic wares were expensive to make and in limited supply. Recognized as prestigious throughout the Mediterranean, and even secondary lusterwares sold for good prices. This bowl was also universally valuable in terms of its use. Abbasid Caliphs and Crusaders alike, used these bowls for luxury feasting; eating and storing food in them the same way we use bowls today.  

  For traveling Crusaders, ceramics such as this lusterware bowl were valued for both their visual connotations and financial value. The bowl’s aesthetic exoticism and visual connection to the Holy Land would have made this bowl an important souvenir for a returning Crusader. Cross-cultural objects like this lustreware bowl would have visually referenced a Crusader’s travels reminding them of the mix of cultures and peoples they encountered while on Crusade. However lusterware bowls luxury status and innate monetary value also would have attracted European Crusaders. Both Islamic and Crusader cultures recognized the symbolic power of lusterware, and used it to connote power, prestige, and wealth. The shimmering iridescence that gave this bowl its prestige with Medieval viewers, continues to attract onlookers today. Evidently everyone is intrigued by an everyday object that has been dipped in the light of the sun.