Bowl
Unknown Artist
10th century
Medium
Earthenware; white slip with incised black slip decoration under transparent glaze
Dimensions
H. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm) Diam. 10 7/16 in. (26.5 cm)
Classification
Ceramics
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1975
Accession Number
1975.195
Art Historical Context
This elegant 10th-century earthenware from the Islamic world exemplifies the refined ceramic artistry of the Abbasid era. Crafted as a shallow serving vessel—standing just3⅝ inches high and 10½ inches in diameter—it reflects the everyday beauty prized in medieval Islamic households, where functional objects doubled as canvases for artistic expression. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Islamic Art, it was acquired through the Fletcher Fund in 197. The bowl's striking decoration employs a sophisticated sgraffito technique: white slip base is coated with black slip, then i...