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• 1 2024-01-29T11:07:05-08:00 What is this? 6 plain 2024-03-28T15:40:22-07:00 By Grace Morrissey '22
  
  This footed bowl with a flared rim from the Worcester Art Museum exemplifies a luxury lusterware ceramic in the Kashan style. 8 inches wide and 3 1/8 inches tall, it was created by artisans in Rayy, Iran, between 1200 and 1299, during the height of lusterware production in the Seljuq empire. 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 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 bowl's luster glaze and repetitive patterning within a set geometry create a sense of visual rhythm and energy while it still functions as dinnerware. We can break the pattern into eight trapezoidal segments, delineated by radiating bands originating from two concentric circles at the bowl's center. These elements create a sense of aesthetic consistency and order within the piece, enhanced by the monochrome reverse coloring. Reserve coloring is a term used to refer to 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. Using a single luster color enabled ceramicists to create clearer figural decorations, incorporating animals, birds, and humans with floral and vegetal motifs. 
  
  A seated figure in a roundel anchors the center of the bowl's decorative composition. The figure gazes off to the viewer's left and is shown wearing a headdress and garments with an intricate scroll and dot pattern. Although the figure's gender is ambiguous, scholarship on lusterware iconography points to their identification as a seated ruler or royal. Scroll flourishes on the bowl's exterior mimic the scroll patterning of the figure's clothing, visually linking this patterning across the entirety of the three-dimensional ceramic form. The bowl's overall aesthetic, materiality, and radiance made it a prestige item coveted by the elite in the Islamic world and beyond. 
  
   
• 1 2024-01-29T11:07:06-08:00 What does this bowl tell us about the medieval globe? 3 plain 2024-02-16T10:46:49-08:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  This bowl asks viewers to consider what is valued across cultures, around the medieval globe: namely, beauty and money.  Although this bowl 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 alike, simply in terms of beauty. However lusterware bowls also had financial value. Technically complex, time-intensive, and requiring the use of specialized materials, these ceramic wares were expensive to make and in limited supply. Recognized as prestigious throughout the Mediterranean, and even secondary lusterwares sold for good prices. This bowl was also universally valuable in terms of its use. Abbasid Caliphs and Crusaders alike, 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 important 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 while on Crusade. However lusterware bowls luxury status and innate monetary value also would have attracted European Crusaders. Both 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. Evidently everyone is intrigued by an everyday object that has been dipped in the light of the sun.
• 1 2024-01-29T11:07:03-08:00 How was this bowl made? 3 plain 2024-02-16T10:49:32-08:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22
  
  The production of lustreware is incredibly complex, requiring several stages of production, two kiln firings, and the use of expensive, specialized metallic oxide glazes. This materiality made the production of lustreware ceramics time-intensive and extremely expensive. 
  The first step in creating a lustreware is to shape the ceramic's body - or form - from raw earthenware, and let it dry.
  The second step is to coat the ceramic in a special lead glaze made with tin oxide that would make the ceramic's body an opaque white.
  After this coating the ceramic is then fired in the kiln for the first time.
  Typically, ceramics only go through these first three steps; however, luster manufacture requires several additional stages. 
  
  After this initial firing, luster ceramicists would then paint on the luster glaze decoration. The colors and tones of these metallic luster paints are incredibly nuanced, and the inclusion of different chemical compounds results in different colors. It is the presence of these silver and copper oxides, typically mixed with clay and ochre, that create the iridescent sheen on the ceramic. At first, lusterware was predominately polychrome including blues, greens, reds, and yellow ochres; however during the 10th century monochrome lusters became popular. The two predominant luster monochromes are red-brown and yellow-brown, which are produced from copper oxide and silver oxide respectively. This shift towards monochrome has persisted since it was first introduced as it enabled ceramists to create stronger, less visually ambiguous designs. The technique of painting on the luster after the ware's initial firing allowed for greater artistic freedom in terms of brushstroke and use of fine lines, making lusterware ceramics some of the most painterly and complex in design.
  
  The vessel is then fired for a second time in a special, smokey kiln at a lower temperature. This creates a "reducing atmosphere" that will deprive the metallic oxides in the luster paint of oxygen, causing them to break down and deposit metallic compounds on the ceramic's glazed surface in a thin film. The kiln temperature is regulated to remain approximately 600 degrees fahrenheit, which softens the initial layer of glaze enough to receive the deposits.
  
  However, the creation of the luster’s metallic sheen is not completed until the ceramic is cooled and the potter is able to rub the surface with a cloth to bring out the luster's shine. It is this final rubbing that creates an iridescence on the ceramic’s urface and finalizes its luster manufacture.

  This multi-step process is not only time and energy intensive, but requires specialized equipment in terms of a kiln and specific oxide-mixed paints. The additional materials and extra fuel required for the second firing results in luster production being both expensive and limited in quantity. However, the production of lusterware was also a testament to a ceramicist's skill, as they needed to control for several variables during the glazing and firing process. 

  Materiality is the single most important element of this bowl as it not only enhances its aesthetic dynamism, but also speaks to when, who, and how the bowl was used.

• 1 2024-01-29T11:07:05-08:00 When was this bowl made? 3 plain 2024-02-16T10:50:22-08:00 By Grace P. Morrissey '22

  The Worcester Art Museum's Figural Islamic Bowl is dated from the thirteenth century, between 1200-1299. This date is significant because it overlaps 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 of production, beginning in the 8th century when Egyptian Islamic craftsmen attempted to apply the metallic pigment to glasswares. However application on glass was aesthetically unsuccessful with the luster paint leaving dark stains on the glass surface, as opposed to shimmering lustrous designs.It is not until the 9th century, that we see luster painted ceramics being produced by Mesopotamian potters under the Abbasid Caliphate (719-258). The Abbasid Caliphate is the second caliphate of successors to rule 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 traditionally "minor" or decorative arts were held in high esteem in Islamic art. Islamic artisans were known to transform humble everyday objects into captivating works of art, through their use of elegant forms and richly patterned surfaces. The development of lustreware's shimmering surface quality is considered to be one of the greatest inventions ever made by Islamic potters. Persian lusterware from the late 12th and early 13th centuries is considered the pinnacle of lusterware production in terms of aesthetic design, new ceramic forms, material quality, and development of technique. Under the Persian Seljuks - Turkish nomads from Central Asia, and the Il-Khanids - members of the Mongol empire, lusterware ceramic production was taken to new heights. Persian wares drew on previous Egyptian Fatimid examples, but developed new shapes and decorative techniques. Lusterware has since traveled from its point of origin in Basra in Southern Iraq, to Iran, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. It was later adopted by European and American ceramicists, and lusterware ceramics are still produced today. 

  Over the course of 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 which allowed for greater clarity of design. Artisans also began experimenting with different aesthetic decorative motifs, incorporating new figuration in the form of animals, birds, peacock eyes, and human figures with traditional geometric and floral patterns. Despite lusterware ceramics being an Islamic art form, figuration was permitted on these dishes and bowls due to their use in secular, royal contexts.

  However, shifts in color and patterning were not the only developments in lusterware aesthetics, as design compositions, scale, and ceramic shapes also evolved considerably. Lusterware production in the early 12th century under the Egyptian Fatimids was characterized by a new more naturalistic style. 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 a variety shapes and sizes, with a range of elegant profiles. These Persian ceramics were then decorated in the early "Monumental style," characterized by its clear 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 lusterwares retained the rendering of figures in reserve, 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, who's 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 both 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 they also incorporate detailed tendrils and tiny scratched scrollwork into its designs. 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 the year 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 has not been lost and its earliest examples have remained highly sought after by both museums and private collectors.