What is this?
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.