By Grace P. Morrissey '22
The Worcester Art Museum acquired this bowl via museum purchase in 1918, however the bowl's history before this is unclear. However, due to the extensive amount of trade and travel that took place during the Crusades, it is evident that this bowl traveled well beyond its site of production in Rayy.
Moving around the Mediterranean, Crusaders acquired an array of portable works including luxury textiles, ivory, carvings, and sacred reliquaries, however they also purchased mass produced marketplace objects, such as metalwork, ceramics, and glass. They used these objects during their time on Crusade and subsequently took them back home to Europe. Ceramic bowls, like the WAM's Figural Islamic Bowl, served both a functional and symbolic purpose during the Crusades. These works of lusterware were functional in that they could be eaten out of and used for storage, however their shimmering surface and Islamic aesthetics connected them to the Holy Land and Crusaders' Islamic encounters.
However it is not immediately apparent how this bowl, or others like it, would have been transferred from one cultural context to another. Scholars propose three plausible options for how Islamic ceramics were relocated into European contexts; first, via gifting, second, via plunder, and third, via trade, as these were the primary means of distribution for most objects traveling in the Medieval Mediterranean. Gifting of lusterware ceramics seems reasonable, as they were considered luxury items by both Islamic and European audiences; however, catalogs from the time documenting objects circulating among Mediterranean courts only mentioned Chinese porcelain vessels, and not other ceramic wares. Similarly, Medieval lists of war booty record gold, silver, jewelry, and luxury textiles, but make no reference to ceramics. As a final option, trade becomes the most likely. The sheer quantity and consistency of quality of the Islamic ceramics that now exist in European collections speaks to the fact that these wares were likely exchanged on the commercial market. Artisans in and around the Holy Land were known to produce wares for sale as lucrative souvenirs for European crusaders, and luster ceramics could fit within this narrative.
