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• 1 2024-03-28T13:30:37-07:00 When was this bowl made? 3 plain 2024-08-15T07:53:45-07:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  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.

• 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.