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Lusterware Plate with Bird Motif Thumbnail
Lusterware Plate with Bird Motif Thumbnail
Lusterware Plate with Bird Motif Thumbnail
Lusterware Plate with Bird Motif Thumbnail

Lusterware Plate with Bird Motif

Egyptian (Artist)
11th century (Medieval)
earthenware, with luster decoration and glaze
(Islamic World )

Decorative lusterware was popular during the Fatimid Period (910-1171). The most important production place was in the cultural center of al-Fustad near the Fatimid capital al-Qahira (Cairo). This plate displays a typical motif of this time period: a bird in a central roundel with leaves and branches and a broad frame with leaf arabesques. Especially attractive are the variation of forms of the leaves and spiral-tendrils, which modify the rhytmic pattern, and the yellow-golden color of the painting.

Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Estate of D.G. Kelekian [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1951, by purchase.

Exhibitions

2019-2022 Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Medieval Trans-Saharan Exchange. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston; Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.
2015 A Cosmopolitan Community: Muslims, Christians, & Jews in Old Cairo. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago.
2013-2014 Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue . The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Yeshiva University Museum, New York.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
10/5/1953 Treatment cleaned
3/2/2006 Treatment cleaned; other; loss compensation
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Geographies

Egypt, Cairo (Place of Origin)

Measurements

H: 2 5/8 × Diam: 9 5/8 in. (6.7 × 24.5 cm)

Credit Line

Museum purchase, 1951

Location in Museum

Centre Street: Third Floor: Medieval Mediterranean

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

48.2036

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Hours

  • Wednesday—Sunday: 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Monday—Tuesday: Closed

Location

600 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD
21201

Phone

410-547-9000

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