Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum | Bush-Reisinger Museum | Arthur M. Sackler Museum

As central control weakened in the Abbasid Empire, regional dynasties arose to support, challenge, or redefine the authority of the caliph in Baghdad. The arts flourished in many centers, and wealthy merchant and professional classes emerged. A dramatic increase in productivity and innovation and an unprecedented expansion of figural decoration characterize the arts of this period.

A transforming event was the influx of Turkic and Mongol peoples from Central and Inner Asia. Most of the objects in this case were created in lands ruled by the most important of the Turkic dynasties, the Great Seljuks (1038–1157), and their immediate successors, the Atabegs. The Mongol invasions into Islamic lands began in the early 1200s and culminated in the 1258 sack of Baghdad. Eventually, the Mongols established their rule as the Yuan dynasty in China, the Chagatay Khanate in Central Asia, the Golden Horde Khanate in southern Russia, and the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256–1335) in greater Iran. The integration of a vast Eurasian territory into the Mongol Empire facilitated commerce and communication, bringing fresh Chinese inspiration into Islamic art.

Object Number

2003.165

Title

Animal head pitcher

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

11th-12th century

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Seljuk-Atabeg period

Culture

Persian

Medium

Fritware with molded decoration under monochrome blue glaze

Dimensions

H: 25 x Diam: 16.2 cm (9 13/16 x 6 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Ann B. Goodman and Arthur B. Pardee

Accession Year

2003

Object Number

2003.165

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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Description

This ewer features a squat, high-hipped body, atop a hollow foot ring. The neck tapers to a spout in the shape of an animal head. The head is crowned by horns that curve into circles. A small handle curves from the back of the animal head to a second and simpler spout, that presumably made it easier to fill the ewer and pour from it. Surface decoration is both carved (incised lines on the horns) and molded (segment lines and arabesques on the body). Small scrolling lines within the segments echo the shape of the horns. Except for the foot ring, the ewer is covered in translucent cobalt-blue glaze.

Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2003-2004 (Cambridge, MA, 2005), p. 23

Jessica Chloros, "An Investigation of Cobalt Pigment on Islamic Ceramics at the Harvard Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2008), Unpublished, pp. 1-41 passim

Overlapping Realms: Arts of the Islamic World and India, 900-1900, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 12/02/2006 - 03/23/2008

32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/01/2014 - 04/19/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/17/2019 - 11/05/2019

Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/07/2018 - 01/06/2019

Google Art Project

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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