Dish with Green Splashed Decoration
9th century
Description
This green-splashed dish,represents the glazed luxury wares being produced in Abbasid Iraq by the late eighth to early ninth century. The rounded walls and slightly everted rim of this dish recall those of Tang white wares. Whether the production of color-splashed ceramics in the Islamic world was an independent development or was also inspired by wares imported from China is still unresolved. A copper oxide was applied in patches on the exterior and interior rim of this dish before it was fired upright. The green patches flowed freely in the clear glaze, pooling at the center into a shape serendipitously resembling a lotus blossom. Ceramics with colorants running in a clear glaze were broadly popular and widely produced in the early Islamic era; wasters have been found from Afrasiyab, in Uzbekistan, to Fustat, in Egypt.Because this visual effect could be achieved through various techniques, assigning place and time of production to these wares is often difficult.On the basis of its well-formed foot, its finely potted profile with recurved rim, and its lack of secondary incised decoration, it is attributed to Iraq.
Dimensions
4.1 x 21.2 cm (1 5/8 x 8 3/8 in.)
Provenance
[Galerie für Griechische, Römische und Byzantinische Kunst, Frankfurt, 1972], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1972-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
Related Artworks
View MorePlain celadon ware: molded light gray stoneware with celadon glaze
12th centuryKoreanTerracotta; greenish clay, black glaze and red paint
6th century BCEGreekTerracotta
RomanBronze
6th century BCEGreekGlass
20th centurySwedishFritware
14th centuryPersianSilver
18th-19th centuryDutchCream colored earthenware with white slip and polychrome decoration
19th centuryBritishCeramic
PersianJian ware: dark gray stoneware with dark brown glaze, the markings in iron oxide. Recovered from the kilns at Shuiji, Jianyang county, Fujian province
12th-13th centuryChineseSilver
18th centuryBritish