Bowl

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Object Name: 
Bowl
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
99.1.1
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 6 cm; Rim Diam: 15.8 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
about 800-899
Credit Line: 
Gift of Lyuba and Ernesto Wolf
Web Description: 
In the ninth and 10th centuries, Islamic glassmakers introduced new shapes, colors, and decorative patterns. This is among the most extraordinary stained glass objects that have survived from the Islamic period. The decoration focuses on a small, plump bird, perhaps a partridge or pigeon, surrounded by five fish. The entire surface of the bowl appears to have been coated with a copper-rich purple-red film before the decoration was drawn. The surface has a pale brown cast under reflected light, but the almost colorless glass, the coating, and the colorful stain come to life under transmitted light.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Wolf, Ernesto, Source
1999
Wolf, Lyuba, Source
1999
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Bluish colorless glass with golden yellow luster or stain, purplish blue-red and orange stains; blown and tooled. The glass is thin with few bubbles. The bowl is deep, with flaring sides and a slightly raised center. Small pontil mark on base. Decorated with a bird in the center and 5 fish and flowers on the interior side walls, all done in different colored luster stains.
Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting
Venue(s)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art 2024-02-04 through 2024-05-26
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 2024-06-30 through 2024-09-15
Detroit Institute of Arts 2024-11-10 through 2025-02-02
Dining with the Sultan is a pan-Islamic exhibition spanning the eighth through nineteenth centuries and including some 200 works of art representing a rich variety of media from three continents. Our goal is to correlate the objects, many of them rare works of art, with the sourcing, preparation, serving and consumption of food. We expect this to be a transformative exhibition, one emphasizing our shared humanity rather than our singular histories. Following the model of LACMA’s 2011 exhibition Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts, it similarly will introduce our audiences to Islamic art and culture with objects of undisputed quality and appeal, only this time viewed through the universal lens of fine dining. In considering the admittedly very substantial and diffuse theme of feasting at the Islamic courts, we have cast as wide a net as possible in terms of both the time frame and the concept of “fine dining.” The resources that inform this study are two-fold: 1) Works of art that can be identified from their inscriptions or specific shapes as containers and receptacles for food or beverage, or are associated with preparing and serving food, or else those works that are similar to examples described by the written sources, as well as works of art, primarily manuscript illustrations, which depict food preparation and dining. 2) Rich textual sources, including a broad array of cookbooks and books of delicacies, texts on etiquette, instructions for princes, royal memoirs, collections of food poetry and parody, dynastic histories, endowment deeds, kitchen accounts, dietetic and medicinal works, travelers’ narratives, and diplomatic reports and communiqués. Clearly it is the first category that primarily will provide the visual focus of the exhibition, while the second will supply the documentary framework as conveyed through didactic materials and especially the exhibition catalogue. The sheer quantity of primary sources and the large number of relevant first-rate works of art together indicate the importance of gourmet gastronomy to Islamic courtly culture. On a popular level, the exhibition will stimulate not only the eyes but the appetite, reminding visitors of the commonly shared pleasure of food—both its taste and its presentation; it also will promote greater inter-cultural understanding and empathy by introducing American museum visitors to Islamic art through a practice shared and prized by all cultures—the act of coming together to partake of a meal. On a scholarly level, and drawing upon recent research in food and foodways, the exhibition will provide much needed information on the enormous class of luxury objects that may be broadly defined as tableware, while also demonstrating how gustatory discernment was a fundamental activity at the great Islamic courts.
The Fragile Art: Extraordinary Objects from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Park Avenue Armory 2009-01-23 through 2009-02-01
The 55th Annual Winter Antiques Show
 
Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade and Innovation
Venue(s)
Smithsonian International Gallery 2004-11-09 through 2005-04-24
Glass of the Sultans
Venue(s)
Benaki Museum
Corning Museum of Glass
Metropolitan Museum of Art
 
Celebrating David Whitehouse (2013) illustrated, p. 6, right; BIB# AI93999
New Light on Old Glass: Recent Research on Byzantine Mosaics and Glass (2013) illustrated, p. 331, pl. 6; BIB# 136397
Glass: A Short History (Smithsonian Books edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 54-55; BIB# 130360
Glass: A Short History (The British Museum edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 54-55; BIB# 135965
Corning Museum of Glass (2009-01) illustrated, pp. 4-5; BIB# 109342
Richard La Londe and Friends (2009) illustrated, p. 149, right; BIB# 112312
History and Folklore in a Medieval Jewish Chronicle (2009) illustrated, p. 212 c; BIB# 113008
Favorite Things (2008) illustrated, p. 15; BIB# AI77257
Glass in Art, History, and Science at The Corning Museum of Glass (2003) illustrated, p. 70, no. 12; BIB# AI64198
Islamic Masterworks: 'Glass of the Sultans' at the Met (2001-11) illustrated, fig. 6-7; cover; BIB# AI53342
Glass of the Sultans (2001) illustrated, p. 3; pp. 213-214, #105; BIB# 68105
Glass in the Islamic World (2001) illustrated, [p. 5, top];
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1999 (2000) cover, title p.; BIB# AI95008
The Corning Museum of Glass: A Decade of Glass Collecting 1990-1999 (2000) illustrated, pp. 11, 13, #4; BIB# 65446
Recent Important Acquisitions, 42 (2000) illustrated, Cover, frontispiece; BIB# AI49427