Bowl

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Object Name: 
Bowl
Accession Number: 
55.1.136
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 7.6 cm, Diam (max): 17.8 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
800-999
Web Description: 
Many early Islamic wheel-cut objects were decorated in a style that was also used to carve stucco, stone, and wood at Samarra in the ninth century. This style, which used to be called “beveled,” is now known as “slant-cut.” The surface was cut and ground so that, in cross section, it looks like a check mark. This afforded the ornament a raised appearance. Fragments of slant-cut glass, dated to the ninth or 10th century, have been found at Samarra. This bowl displays a combination of relief and slant cutting. The two principal motifs - a standing bird with a small head and an elongated body, and a tree of life - appear four times. Presumably the bowl was fashioned from a glass disk that was sagged over a mold, then cut, ground, and polished.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Smith, Ray Winfield (American, 1897-1982), Source
1955-12-13
Category: 
Color: 
Material: 
Primary Description: 
Translucent deep green; few spherical bubbles. Probably slumped over mold; probably slant-cut. Bowl: hemispherical, with eight lobes. Rim has flat top and beveled inner surface formed by grinding; wall curves down and in, and has on inside, at junctions of lobes, sharp cusps that extend from rim to center of floor; base is slightly convex, with solid foot-ring; no pontil mark. Wall is decorated on outside with slant-cut ornament consisting of two alternating motifs, each repeated four times: (1) standing bird, facing left, with curved beak, small head, elongated body, tiny wing, and pointed tail; its neck is embellished with band of horizontal cuts, and wing and tail have transverse parallel cuts; and (2) tree of life, with trunk divided at top into two scrolling half-palmettes, and at midpoint into inverted palmette flanked by long, curving leaves.
Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture
Venue(s)
Brigham Young University Museum of Art 2012-02-24 through 2012-09-29
Indianapolis Museum of Art 2012-11-02 through 2013-01-13
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 2013-02 through 2013-06
Brooklyn Museum 2013-08 through 2013-11
As the premier art museum in the Mountain West and most attended university art museum in North America, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art (MOA) in Provo, Utah, is the organizing institution for the upcoming exhibition Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture. Renowned Islamic art scholar Dr. Sabiha Al Khemir is serving as Project Director of the exhibition that will feature more than 250 works of art from more than 40 lenders in ten countries and will travel throughout the United States. The exhibition will be on display in the galleries on the main level of the museum.
Glass of the Sultans
Venue(s)
Benaki Museum
Corning Museum of Glass
Metropolitan Museum of Art
 
Glass from the Ancient World
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 1957-06-04 through 1957-09-15
Ancient and Islamic Glass: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass (2019) illustrated, pp. 106-107;
Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture (2012) illustrated, p. 224, top center; BIB# 127550
Shaping Colour Density, Light and Form in solid Glass Sculpture (2012) illustrated, p. 58, fig. 20; BIB# 131009
Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses (Volume 3) (2012) pp. 442, 682; BIB# 61154
Islamic Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass Volume One (2010) illustrated, pp. 278-279, #490; BIB# 113723
Histoire du Verre: les chefs-d'oeuvre de l'Islam (2007) illustrated, p. 47; BIB# 98424
Islamic Masterworks: 'Glass of the Sultans' at the Met (2001-11) illustrated, fig. 14; BIB# AI53342
Glass of the Sultans (2001) illustrated, p. 188, #93; pp. 176-178, #83 (parallel); BIB# 68105
Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses (Volume 1) (1999) pp. 101, 249; BIB# 61154
Hikari no shouchu: sekai no garasu = The glass (1992) p. 193, #145; BIB# 58995
The Survey of Glass in the World (1992) illustrated, (no. 204), p. 99, 291; BIB# 44518
The Glass Source Book (1990) Dust Jacket; BIB# 33844
A Tribute to Persia, Persian Glass (1972) illustrated, p. 15, no. 24; BIB# 65782
Islamic Relief Cut Glass: A Suggested Chronology (1961) illustrated, pp. 25-27, fig. 30; p. 28; BIB# AI57387
Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection (1957) illustrated, pp. 262-263, #532; BIB# 27315