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• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 What is this? 4 plain 2024-10-22T16:42:22-07:00
  
  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. 
  
  Grace P. Morrissey, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2022
• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 When was this bowl made? 4 plain 2024-10-22T16:42:47-07:00

  The bowl dates to the thirteenth century, overlapping 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, beginning in the 8th century when Egyptian artisans tried applying metallic pigment to glassware. However, the application on glass was aesthetically unsuccessful, with the luster paint leaving dark stains on the glass surface instead of shimmering lustrous designs.
  
  It is not until the 9th century that we start seeing luster-painted ceramics being produced by Mesopotamian potters under the Abbasid Caliphate (719-258). The Abbasid Caliphate is the second caliphate of successors to guide the newly formed Muslim community 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 what some of us may consider "minor" or decorative art was held in high esteem in Islamic society. Islamic artisans were known to transform humble everyday objects into captivating creations using elegant forms and richly patterned surfaces.
  
  The development of lusterware’s shimmering surface quality is considered one of the greatest inventions ever made by Islamic potters. It reached new heights in the late 12th and early 13th centuries in aesthetic design, new ceramic forms, material quality, and technique development Under the Persian Seljuks—Turkish nomads from Central Asia—and the Ilkhanids—members of the Mongol empire. Persian wares drew on previous Egyptian Fatimid examples but developed new shapes and decorative techniques. Lusterware has since traveled from Basra in Southern Iraq to Iran, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. European and American ceramicists later adopted it, and lusterware ceramics are still produced today.
  
  Throughout 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, allowing for greater design clarity. Artisans also started experimenting with different decorative motifs, incorporating new figurations like animals, birds, peacock eyes, and human figures with traditional geometric and floral patterns.
   
  

  Shifts in color and patterning were not the only developments in lusterware aesthetics, as design compositions, scale, and ceramic shapes also evolved considerably. For example, a more naturalistic style characterized lusterware production in the early 12th century under the Fatimids. 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 various shapes and sizes with elegant profiles.
  
  These Persian ceramics were then decorated in the early "Monumental style," characterized by its precise 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 lusterware retained the rendering of figures in reserve, as 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, whose 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 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, their designs also incorporate detailed tendrils and tiny scratched scrollwork.
  
  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 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 was not lost, and its earliest examples have remained highly sought after by both museums and private collectors.
  
  Grace P. Morrissey, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2022

• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 What does this bowl tell us about the early global world? 4 plain 2024-10-30T09:53:15-07:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  This bowl asks viewers to consider what is valued across cultures around the medieval globe: beauty and wealth. Although it was made during the Crusades, it was valued by both Christians and Muslims.
  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 simply in terms of beauty. However, lusterware bowls also had financial value. Technically complex, time-intensive, and requiring specialized materials, these ceramic wares were expensive and in limited supply. They were recognized as prestigious throughout the Mediterranean, and even secondary lusterwares sold for reasonable prices. This bowl was also universally valuable in terms of its use. Abbasid Caliphs and Crusaders 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 essential 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 on the Crusade.
  However, lusterware bowls' luxury status and innate monetary value also would have attracted European Crusaders. 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. Everyone is intrigued by an everyday object that has been dipped in the light of the sun.
• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 Who made this bowl? 3 plain 2024-10-22T16:43:58-07:00
  
  An individual potter for this bowl is unknown. However we do know the techniques behind lusterware manufacture must have been sustained by passing the practice down from potter to potter, and taught to local ceramists as the practice traveled from region to region. The techniques behind lusterware production needed to be explicitly taught, as simply looking at a finished lusterware ceramic leaves no clues about the methods used in production or the intricacies of its manufacture.
  
  Techniques behind luster production would have been closely guarded, due to the fact that the production materials and finished product were both expensive. Lusterware potters sought to monopolize this ceramic technique for their own monetary profit, and as such, knowledge of luster-making appears to have been restricted to families of specialist craftsmen who kept it to themselves.
  
  
  Grace P. Morrissey, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2022