Alhambra vase
Stockholm, Sweden
National Museum of Fine Arts
Hegira second half of the 8th century / AD second half of the 14th century
NMK 47
Ceramic; opaque glazed, overglaze painted in lustre.
Height c. 119 cm
Nasrid
Spain, possibly Malaga.
The jar, shaped like an amphora, belongs to the group of so-called Alhambra vases characterised by a swelling body, a neck with protruding lip and wide flat handles. One of the handles of this vase was lost and has been replaced by a bronze dragon. Base supports were added later to the vase to hold it upright. The decoration, overglaze painted in a yellowish lustre, emphasises the different components of the vase: perpendicular designs fill the panels of the long, ribbed neck, alternate narrow and wide horizontal bands define the elongated body, and an all-over lattice of rhombs covers the remaining handle. A limited repertoire of designs consisting of inscriptional, ornamental and vegetal elements is repeated in the individual areas of the body and the neck. The decoration of this vase shows some special features not found on other vases. The most remarkable difference is the obligatory kufic inscription of the body which is not set in a wide central area. Another feature is the vegetal pattern composed of thin stems that lack a recognisable inner structure.
The Alhambra vase in Stockholm is one of the few nearly complete vases. When it was described for the first time in the 16th century by pilgrims as a relic in a church in Cyprus, the vase was believed to be one of the jars from the Marriage at Canaan when Christ transformed water into wine. In 1580 the vase came as booty in the possession of the Ottoman sultan. Some time later, a German ambassador at the Sublime Porte succeeded in buying the Christian relic and the vase passed into the treasury of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (1552–1612). When the Swedish army conquered Prague in 1648, it was taken to Sweden and became part of the treasures of the royal family. In the first half of the 18th century the Swedish architect C. Härleman restored the missing handle by designing a dragon. He also added the bronze wreath, covering much of the bold naskhi inscription on the shoulder, which cannot be read.
Large, amphora-like jar (so-called Alhambra vase). Horizontal bands contain inscriptions, ornamental and vegetal motifs. One of the characteristic wide flat handles was replaced by a bronze dragon. The base intended to hold the jar upright was also added later.
Because of its elongated shape and its decoration scheme, the Stockholm vase is a predecessor of the blue painted vases dated to the late 8th–early 9th / late 14th–early 15th centuries. Its comparison with the architectural and textile ornament of the time of the reign of Muhammad V (764–94 / 1362–91) is evidence for an attribution of the vase to the second half of the 8th / 14th century.
The Alhambra vase was part of the royal collections, which were transferred to the Royal Museum, later the National Museum of Fine Arts, opened in the palace in 1794.
Several jars of this type were found in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, which also gives the objects their name. It is not known exactly where the vases were produced. They were probably made in Malaga, southwest of Granada, which was the centre of lustre ceramic production from the 7th to the 9th / 13th to the 15th centuries.
Aguado Villalba, J., Tinajas medievales españolas: Islamicas y Mudéjaros, Madrid, 1991.
Frothingham, A. W., Lusterware of Spain, New York, 1951.
Kenesson, S. S., “Nasrid Luster Pottery: The Alhambra Vases”, Muqarnas 9, 1992, pp.93–115.
Kurz, O., “The Strange History of an Alhambra Vase”, The Decorative Arts of Europe and the Islamic East, London, 1977, pp.205–12.
Martínez Caviró, B., Cerámica Hispanomusulmana Andalusi y Mudéjar, Madrid, 1991, pp.75–123.
Friederike Voigt "Alhambra vase" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01_A;34;en
MWNF Working Number: SE 36
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