- Title
- Bowl
- Date Made
- 15th century
- Medium
- Fritware, underglaze-painted
- Dimensions
- Height: 2 1/4 in. (5.71 cm); Diameter: 13 1/4 in. (33.65 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2002.1.72
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
From the early ninth century, imported Chinese ceramics enjoyed great popularity in Islamic lands, while Muslim potters imitated their shapes and developed new ways of emulating the whiteness and lightness of stoneware and porcelain. It was not until after the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, however, that Chinese designs were widely adopted in Islamic art. The development of porcelain decorated in underglaze blue in China in the early decades of the fourteenth century had an enormous impact, both as an imported elite tableware and as a source of emulation. Motifs such as lotus flowers and peonies, dragons, and, in the case of this bowl, the phoenix, became commonplace not only in glazed ceramics but also in other luxury mediums, such as inlaid metalwork and silk textiles.
