From the Harvard Art Museums’ collections Zoomorphic Pitcher

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2002.50.99
Title: Zoomorphic Pitcher
Classification: Vessels
Work Type: vessel
Date: 13th century
Places: Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period: Seljuk-Atabeg period
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/147778

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Molded fritware covered with turquoise (copper) alkali glaze opacified with tin
Technique: Mold-made
Dimensions: 18.4 x 10.2 cm (7 1/4 x 4 in.)

Provenance

[Mansour Gallery, London, 1978], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1978-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
Accession Year: 2002
Object Number: 2002.50.99
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu; The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description: This pitcher is molded in the shape of an ox; the animal wears a harness defined in low relief. Despite the thinness of the potting, the vessel is intact. The glaze has deteriorated in some areas, but the overall surface is in very good condition.; Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
24

Zoomorphic pitcher
Iran, Seljuk-Atabeg period, 13th century[1]
Molded fritware covered with turquoise (copper) alkali glaze opacified with tin
18.4 × 10.2 cm (7 1/4 × 4 in.)
2002.50.99

This pitcher is molded in the shape of an ox; the animal wears a harness defined in low relief. Despite the thinness of the potting, the vessel is intact. The glaze has deteriorated in some areas, but the overall surface is in very good condition.

Although its slender handle could have made it difficult to carry when full,[2] this pitcher may nevertheless have been used to serve wine, since bull-shaped vessels are known to have been employed for this purpose in medieval Iran.[3] Similar examples in different techniques can be found in public collections in North America and Europe; a near twin is in the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf.[4]

Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım

[1] The results of thermoluminescence analysis of this pitcher carried out by Oxford Authentication Ltd. in 2011 were inconclusive.
[2] Such vessels may have been made mostly for display purposes: see Watson 1985, 120.
[3] See, in this catalogue, Oya Pancaroğlu’s essay, “Feasts of Nishapur: Cultural Resonances of Tenth-Century Ceramic Production in Khurasan,” 25–35.
[4] Hetjens Museum 1973, 129.

Publication History

Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), p. 185, cat. 24, ill.

Exhibition History

In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2013 - 06/01/2013

32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/19/2018 - 04/17/2019

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu