54 Items in this Learning Collection
Collection Object
Collection Object

Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Ewer with animal head, with band of decorative inscriptions at shoulder in thuluth script on an arabesque ground

Accession Number
1959/1.90

Title
Ewer with animal head, with band of decorative inscriptions at shoulder in thuluth script on an arabesque ground

Artist(s)
Iranian

Artist Nationality
Iranian

Object Creation Date
12th century - 13th century

Medium & Support
earthenware with appliquéd barbotine decoration

Dimensions
8 in. x 5 in. x 5 in. ( 20.3 cm x 12.7 cm x 12.7 cm )

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
Although ceramic glazing techniques were perfected in Iran by the twelfth century, there was always a market for unglazed pottery, both for its lower price and its ability to cool water through evaporation. Inscriptions and decorative patterns were added to these vessels by the barbotine technique, which involves piping thin ropes of wet clay on to the surface to create a relief pattern.
The exquisite thuluth inscription that circles the neck of this ewer is written against a background of a floral scroll, a technique also found in monumental inscriptions of the period. The poetic inscription, also used in a second terracotta jug on display, recalls earlier inscriptions of poems and maxims painted on the white surfaces of eastern Iranian pottery from the kilns of Nishapur.
Yasser Tabbaa, Guest Curator, 'Art of the Written Word,' 1/15–6/5/2005

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
Islamic (culture or style)
ceramics (object genre)
jugs (vessels)

3 Related Resources

Arts from Persia and Iran
(Part of: Ancient and Classical Civilizations)
Visual Cultures of Islam - Ceramics
(Part of: Visual Cultures of Islam )
Cabinet J: Shelf 1
(Part of: Albertine Monroe-Brown Study-Storage Gallery)

& Author Notes

Web Use Permitted

On display

UMMA Gallery Location ➜ AMH, 2nd floor ➜ 205 (Albertine Monroe-Brown Study-Storage Gallery) ➜ Cabinet J ➜ Shelf 1