Luster ceramics from Samarra often include stylized human figures. In this example, the lively caricatural quality of the seated man holding a cup and a flowering branch is enhanced by the two birds that hold fish in their beaks but look like they are kissing. The foot bears an Arabic inscription that reads baraka (blessing) in kufic script.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bowl depicting a Man holding a Cup and a Flowering Branch
Date:10th century
Geography:Attributed to Iraq
Medium:Earthenware; luster-painted on opaque white glaze
Dimensions:H. 2 7/16 in. (6.2 cm) Diam. 9 5/16 in. (23.7 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Gift of Edwin Binney 3rd and Purchase, Richard S. Perkins Gift, 1977
Object Number:1977.126
Inscription: Below base in Arabic in kufic script: Blessing
Edwin Binney 3rd, East Orleans, Mass.(by 1966–77; gift and sale to MMA)
Ettinghausen, Richard. "The "Wade Cup" in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Its Origin and Decorations." Ars Orientalis vol. 2 (1957). p. 347, ill. fig. O (b/w).
Otto-Dorn, Katharina. "Ihre Geschichtlichen, Soziologischen und Religiosen Grundlagen." In Kunst des Islam. kunst der Welt. Die Kulturen des Abendlandes. Baden-Baden: Holle Verlag, 1965. p. 77, ill. fig. 28, ill. flipped.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Pottery: A Brief History." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. 40, no. 4 (Spring 1983). no. 6, p. 9, ill.
Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 20–21, ill. fig. 10 (color).
Dodds, Jerrilynn D., Dr., Oleg Grabar, Antonio Vallejo Triano, Daniel S. Walker, Renata Holod, Cynthia Robinson, Juan Zozaya, Manuel Casamar Pérez, Christian Ewert, Guillermo Rossello Bordoy, Cristina Partearroyo, Sabiha Al Khemir, Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez, James Dickie, Jesus Bermudez Lopez, D. Fairchild Ruggles, and Juan Vernet. Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, edited by Dr. Jerrilynn D. Dodds. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. p. 44, ill. fig. 3 (color).
O'Kane, Bernard, ed. "Studies in Honour of Robert Hillenbrand." In The Iconography of Islamic Art:. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. p. 104, ill. fig. 7.1 (b/w).
Scheiner, Jens, and Isabel Toral, ed. Baghdad : From its Beginnings to the 14th Century. Leiden: Brill, 2022. p. 422, ill. fig. 13.3.
Flood, Finbarr Barry, and Gulru Necipoglu. "Volume 1. From the Prophets to the Mongols." In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. vol. I. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. pp. 508–9, ill. fig. 20.2 (b/w).
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