Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 451

This earthenware tile was covered with a white glaze, fired, painted with metallic pigments in three colors, re-fired, and then polished. Designers of Abbasid period put this new glazing technology, known as luster painting, to innovative use at Samarra to replicate the sheen and mottling of semiprecious stones using locally available materials.

Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment, Earthenware; polychrome luster-painted on opaque white glaze

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Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment, Earthenware; polychrome luster-painted on opaque white glaze
Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment, Earthenware; polychrome luster-painted on opaque white glaze
Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment, Earthenware; polychrome luster-painted on opaque white glaze

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