Fritware dish, painted in blue, black, and brownish red under a transparent glaze
Syria, Raqqa; beginning of 13th century
H: 16; Diam:50 cm
Excavations in Raqqa have led to the view that the city was the most important ceramics center in 13th-century Syria.
This dish is typical of output in Raqqa potteries, which were able to produce very large pieces. The form is typical. The dish is perfectly round, has a flat, horizontal rim, and rests on a little ring foot. The inside is decorated with an impressive arabesque. It fills out the dish by both repeating and varying the various kinds of winding vegetal ornaments.
The mastery and artistic freedom that characterize the dish are also found on others from Raqqa.
Inv. no. Isl 1
Published in:
F. Sarre: ”Drei Meisterwerke Syrischer Keramik, Neuerwerbungen der Islamischen Kunstabteilung” in Berliner Museen, 48: 1, 1927, pp. 9-10, Abb. 6;
Paul Graupe, Berlin, 14/4-1934, lot 651;
Ernst J. Grube: “Raqqa-Keramik in der Sammlung des Metropolitan Museum in New York” in Kunst des Orients, 4, 1963, pp. 75-76, Abb. 35;
C .L. Davids Samling. Fjerde Del : Jubilæumsskrift 1945-70, København 1970, no. 15, pp. 284-285;
The arts of Islam : Hayward gallery, 8 April - 4 July 1976, London 1976, cat.no. 308;
Art from the World of Islam. 8th-18th century, Louisiana, Humlebæk 1987, cat.no. 86;
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat.no. 137;
Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk and Peder Mortensen (eds.): Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal: the history and culture of the Islamic world, The National Museum, Copenhagen 1996, cat.no. 56;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat.no. 195;
Eric Delpont (ed.): L'Orient de Saladin: l'art des Ayyoubides: exposition présentée à l'Institut du monde arabe, Paris du 23 octobre 2001 au 10 mars 2002, Institut du monde arabe, Paris 2001, cat.no. 169, p. 173;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006, cat.no. 93;
