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• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 Where was this bowl produced? 7 plain 2024-10-22T18:22:34-07:00 35.6967,51.209
  

  Scholars at the Worcester Art Museum have attributed this bowl to Rayy, a medieval city outside present-day Tehran, Iran. One of the earliest cities in Iran, Rayy was taken by the newly-formed Muslim community moving northeast from the Arabian peninsula in 640 and later served as the governor's residence in eastern Iran. By the 10th century, Rayy had become one of the most prominent cities in Western Asia and flourished under Seljuk rule.
  
  Alongside Kashan, Rayy was a famous center for silk and ceramic production. Archeologists have attributed enamel and lusterwares of various shapes, patterns, and sizes to the Rayy region. However, kilns are yet to be excavated from the city.
  
  Rayy is one of many significant lusterware production sites. Lusterware was first produced in Basra, Iraq, and later in Iran. Production then traveled around the Mediterranean, moving west into Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate and spreading across North Africa into Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. The ceramic technique was introduced in Málaga, Spain, before returning to the Near East under the Persian Seljuks.

  Grace P. Morrissey, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2022

• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 Why was this bowl made? 6 plain 2024-10-22T16:43:10-07:00
  
   
  Lusterware ceramics, like the WAM bowl, were first created in response to potters in West Asia encountering Chinese porcelains. During the 9th and early 10th centuries, the Abbasid Caliphate imported highly valuable Tang Dynasty porcelains from across the Indian Ocean and up the Persian Gulf. The Abbasid court deeply admired the beauty of these Chinese wares. As a result of these cross-cultural transactions, earthenware became accepted as worthy of royal use for the first time in Islamic society. Potters in this region shared the Caliphate's affinity for Chinese porcelains and were deeply impressed by the elegance, strength, and whiteness of these imports. As such, they sought to mimic the milky white surfaces, thin walls, elegant profiles, and durability of Chinese ceramic white wares.
   
    
  Chinese ceramicists used clay with kaolin deposits, resulting in a fine, white consistency in porcelain production. However, the earthenware clay available to Islamic potters in West Asia was not equipped to create ceramics of either Chinese color or consistency due to a lack of kaolin deposits in the soil. Thus, these potters had to experiment with earthenware and various glazing techniques to approach the white glaze and thin forms used by Chinese potters. Lusterware resulted from these experiments.
  Early West Asian potters realized that covering an earthenware ceramic with a lead and tin oxide glaze would create an opaque white surface similar to Chinese ceramics. This white base was then painted with silver and copper metallic oxide glazes to develop the monochrome-on-white aesthetic they sought. However, firing these metallic oxides had the added benefit of creating a unique shimmer and iridescence on the ceramic's surface.
  
  From the beginning, lusterware was created as luxury ceramics intended to be used in Islamic royal courts. Due to the complex nature of the lusterware firing and glazing process, these ceramics were incredibly expensive and were not widely produced. Only royal court members could afford to purchase and use them as dinnerware. These ceramics' aesthetics also reflected their status as feast ware. Abbasid luster ceramics, created for the royal courts at Baghdad and Samarra, were decorated to reflect the power and prestige of the caliph. Decorative motifs frequently included rulers feasting, royals being entertained, righteous battles, animals associated with good luck, and auspicious inscriptions bestowing blessings on the caliph. In later years, lusterware created for the Persian Seljuk and Ilkhanid courts percolated into the hands of an emerging wealthy urban class that also coveted the deluxe dinnerware. As a result, images of courtiers enthroned, feasting, and hunting became more prevalent. 
  
  The figural element in its decoration suggests that this bowl was used for a secular feasting context. Additionally, the metallic quality of the lusterware visually mimics gold, which is significant because, in Islamic religious practice, Muslims are not supposed to eat from golden ware. Thus, lusterware's ceramic materiality provided a loophole for luxury dinnerware.
  
  Due to their luxury status, expensive lusterware was valued across cultures. Europeans in the Spanish courts of Saville and later European crusaders sought out and used lusterware items despite their Islamic production and form. 
  
  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 Where did this bowl go? 3 plain 2024-08-15T07:57:56-07:00

  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. Due to the extensive 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 various portable works, including luxury textiles, ivory, carvings, and sacred reliquaries. However, they also purchased mass-produced marketplace objects like 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. 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 Islamic and European audiences. However, catalogs from the time documenting objects circulating among Mediterranean courts only mention Chinese porcelain.
  
  Similarly, Medieval lists of war booty record gold, silver, jewelry, and luxury textiles but do not refer to ceramics. The final possibility, trade, becomes the most likely. The sheer quantity of Islamic ceramics in European collections suggests that these wares were likely exchanged commercially. 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.