Name of Object:

Dish with small bull

Location:

Rome, Italy

Holding Museum:

Museum of Civilisations | Museum of Oriental Art “Giuseppe Tucci”

About Museum of Civilisations | Museum of Oriental Art “Giuseppe Tucci”, Rome

Date of Object:

Hegira 11th century / AD 17th century

Museum Inventory Number:

9765/ 8484

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Lustre-painted ceramic.

Dimensions:

Height 7.6 cm, diameter 36.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

production related to Mudéjar art

Provenance:

Spain, Valencian workshop.

Description:

Dish with curved sides and a foot-ring painted in intense red lustre on a white-cream background. At the centre of the decoration there is a silhouette of a small bull or bullock painted in lustre with the detailing obtained by leaving some parts uncoloured, from which emerge four long symmetrical stalks with stylised flowers, probably derived from an adaptation of the plant shoots that occur on other examples of this type of object.
The four sections into which the dish is divided are each decorated with a large bush with feathered leaves set diagonally, which predate a motif extremely common in later pieces (AH 12th / AD 18th century).
Each bush bears two pieces of a sort of triangular fruit decorated with a fish-scale pattern obtained by leaving parts uncoloured.

The decoration on this plate presages motifs that would become common in objects produced later in Valencia.

How Object was obtained:

Purchase.

How provenance was established:

The decoration on the base of the dish, filled with groups of dots, other smaller, flowering bushes and tiny cruciform and star motifs, recurs in later Valencian production in then 12th / 18th century. Along the edge of the plate, accentuated by a broad band of solid lustre, there is a frame made up of a series of semi-circles containing small lustre disks, which predates a motif belonging to a later age, and which was probably inspired by the ‘fingernail’ motif that was commonly used on the edges of plates in the first third of the 11th / 17th century.

Selected bibliography:

Ainaud De Lasarte, J., Cèramica y Vidrio, Ars Hispaniae, Vol. 10, Madrid, 1952.
Fronthingham, A. W., Lustreware of Spain, New York, 1951.
Torre, P., “Maioliche a Lustro Ispano-Moresche”, Serie Schede Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale, 7, Rome, 1987.
Torre, P., Le Mille e una Notte: Ceramiche Persiane, Turche e Ispano-Moresche, Faenza, 1990.
Torre, P., “Techniques Journeying from East to West at the Time of the Crusades”, Crusades: Myth and Realities, Nicosia, 2004.

Citation of this web page:

Paola Torre "Dish with small bull" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;it;Mus01;14;en

Prepared by: Paola TorrePaola Torre

Responsabile del Dipartimento di Archeologia e Arte Islamica e del Servizio Educativo presso il Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale “Giuseppe Tucci” di Roma.
Laureata in Arte islamica, ha svolto per anni attività di docenza presso l'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli ed è autrice di numerose pubblicazioni e studi scientifici riguardanti soprattutto la ceramica del mondo islamico, con particolare riferimento alla produzione dipinta a lustro metallico, dalla Mesopotamia alla Spagna.
Copyedited by: Pier Paolo RacioppiPier Paolo Racioppi

Laureato e specializzato in storia dell'arte presso l'Università di Roma “La Sapienza” sta conseguendo il dottorato di ricerca in Storia e conservazione dell'oggetto d'arte e d'architettura presso l'Università di Roma TRE. Ha svolto attività seminariali presso l'Istituto di Storia dell'Arte all'Università La Sapienza di Roma e attualmente è docente di storia dell'arte del Rinascimento presso la IES at Luiss (Roma).
Ha pubblicato diversi contributi sulla tutela artistica, il collezionismo e le accademie d'arte, ed ha collaborato al Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani dell'Enciclopedia Treccani.
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: IT 14