- Title
- Tile
- Date Made
- early 14th century
- Medium
- Fritware, overglaze luster-painted with cobalt blue
- Dimensions
- 15 x 14 in. (38.10 x 35.56 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.73.5.143
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
Following the tumultuous period of Mongol invasions in the early thirteenth century, the eastern Islamic world, newly united with Central and Eastern Asia, experienced a time of peace and economic and artistic flourishing known as the Pax Mongolica. This luster-painted tile epitomizes the important mingling of cultures that occurred during the period; the top is decorated with a band of soaring phoenixes derived from Chinese designs while the bottom portion contains a fragment of a Persian poetic inscription. This amalgamation of East Asian and Near Eastern arts spread throughout the Islamic world and continued to influence artistic production well after the end of the Pax Mongolica.
