Cross-Shaped Tile Fragment
Unknown Artist
first half 13th century
Medium
Stonepaste; overglaze luster-painted
Classification
Ceramics-Tiles
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1911
Accession Number
11.142.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite *Cross-Shaped Tile Fragment dating to the first half of the13th century, hails from the Islamic world and exemplifies the pinnacle of medieval ceramic innovation. Crafted in stonepaste—a composite of quartz, clay, and glass frit that allowed for thin, translucent bodies mimicking porcelain—the tile was adorned with overglaze-painting. This labor-intensive technique involved applying metallic oxides over a fired glaze, then refiring in a reducing atmosphere to produce a radiant, iridescent sheen caught the light like liquid gold. Such tiles were prized for architectural embellish...