Kashan Luster-painted Ceramic Jug, 11th-13th Century CE
Fritware
Height: 16 cm
ES.9933.22
Description This splendid ceramic jug has a globular shape, a narrow cylindrical neck with bulge below the rim which spreads out to a shelf and a short spout. Here the...
Description
This splendid ceramic jug has a globular shape, a narrow cylindrical neck with bulge below the rim which spreads out to a shelf and a short spout. Here the decoration consists of a series of verses, spiral and vegetative motifs in lustre over a pale white surface. Some verses have been incised on the luster paint so to reveal the white background. Larger motifs can be found on the shoulder, while the area between the inscription bands and the foot is filled with dots and motifs like the Arabic letter nun.
Calligraphy was of far more importance in Islamic culture than in the Christian west. The Arabic text of the Koran was considered to be a transcription of an eternal Koran, written in Arabic, kept in Heaven. The words and letters thus had a holiness of their own. Taken alongside the antipathy towards the use of images in a strictly religious context, this explains why the decorative possibilities of the Arabic script were so fully explored by Islamic artists, and accounts for the popularity of calligraphic designs, in media, like ceramics, less suited to them.
The technique of lustre decoration on ceramics was first developed in Iraq in the 9th century. About 1170, the lustre technique was taken from Syria to the city of Kashan in Iran, where this piece was probably made. With this technique potters first made a white glazed vessel with little or no decoration, then, when the piece had cooled, they painted a design over the glaze in metallic compounds of silver and copper. The piece was then fired again, this time with a restricted supply of oxygen thus creating reducing conditions. In these conditions, the metallic compounds broke down, and a thin deposit of copper or silver was left on the surface of the glaze creating this precious luminous effect on the surface of the vessel. The luster technique was very difficult to control and required very advanced technical skills, its first makers having inherited knowledge from glass workers who were using the oxides of silver and copper to paint glass. This technical knowledge of glass decoration was probably transferred to potters, with the discovery that lustre can also form on a receptive ceramic glaze.
This splendid ceramic jug has a globular shape, a narrow cylindrical neck with bulge below the rim which spreads out to a shelf and a short spout. Here the decoration consists of a series of verses, spiral and vegetative motifs in lustre over a pale white surface. Some verses have been incised on the luster paint so to reveal the white background. Larger motifs can be found on the shoulder, while the area between the inscription bands and the foot is filled with dots and motifs like the Arabic letter nun.
Calligraphy was of far more importance in Islamic culture than in the Christian west. The Arabic text of the Koran was considered to be a transcription of an eternal Koran, written in Arabic, kept in Heaven. The words and letters thus had a holiness of their own. Taken alongside the antipathy towards the use of images in a strictly religious context, this explains why the decorative possibilities of the Arabic script were so fully explored by Islamic artists, and accounts for the popularity of calligraphic designs, in media, like ceramics, less suited to them.
The technique of lustre decoration on ceramics was first developed in Iraq in the 9th century. About 1170, the lustre technique was taken from Syria to the city of Kashan in Iran, where this piece was probably made. With this technique potters first made a white glazed vessel with little or no decoration, then, when the piece had cooled, they painted a design over the glaze in metallic compounds of silver and copper. The piece was then fired again, this time with a restricted supply of oxygen thus creating reducing conditions. In these conditions, the metallic compounds broke down, and a thin deposit of copper or silver was left on the surface of the glaze creating this precious luminous effect on the surface of the vessel. The luster technique was very difficult to control and required very advanced technical skills, its first makers having inherited knowledge from glass workers who were using the oxides of silver and copper to paint glass. This technical knowledge of glass decoration was probably transferred to potters, with the discovery that lustre can also form on a receptive ceramic glaze.