Verre byzantin et islamiqueByzantine and Islamic Glass
Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert
CARBONI, Stefano
Glass Production in the Fatimid Lands and Beyond
BARRUCAND, Marianne
L’Égypte fatimide, son art et son histoire. Actes du colloque organisé à Paris les 28, 29 et 30 mai 1998
Presses de l’Université de Paris -Sorbonne, Paris, 1999, p. 169-177
Benaki Museum (AthènesAthens) ; British Museum (LondresLondon) ; The Corning Museum of Glass (Corning) ; C.L. David Collection (CopenhagueCopenhagen) ; Freer Gammery of Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington) ; Kuwait National Museum (KuweitKuwait) ; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) ; Museum of Underwater Archaeology (Bodrum)
[950, 1200]
doré gilded filets marbrés marvered trails lustré stained, lustre-painted sculpté relief-cut soufflé dans un moule mould-blown verre camée cameo glass émaillé enamelled
• General problems and issues related to the study of Islamic glass production until about the end of the 12th century:
– almost total lack of inscriptions (either moulded or engraved, or painted) on glass from this period (one exception: glass weights): the studies of the glass are based on a comparative analysis of shapes, decoration, and technical details of objects;
– wide distribution of Islamic glass objects (traded high quality artistic products or glass objects used as containers): attribution to a specific place of production is almost impossible;
– trade in broken glass for recycling from the Middle East to the northern Mediterranean and to the Indian Ocean: the issue of distinguishing between local production and imported objects; difficulties with interpretation of the results of chemical analyses of objects made from mixed, recycled material.
• Glass from the Fatimid Period, some characteristics:
– glass production was affected by a lesser number of mutations, alterations and so on, than all other comparable media (pottery, rock-crystal, woodwork, metalwork, textiles);
– Fatimid Period as transition between the “early” and the “medieval” phases of Islamic art: this phenomenon in glass production corresponds, for example, to the transition between glass staining and enameling;
– the 11th century: common stylistic ground for lustre painting on pottery and staining on glass;
– interest of Fatimid glassmakers in gilding;
– late Fatimid period: production of gilded and enameled glass ? - matter of speculation;
– production of glass with marvered trails;
– glass found in the shipwreck from Serçe Limanı as an example of average glass from the first half of the 11th century, possibly from the Syrian region:
- color: colorless or lightly tinged glass, sometimes dark green, exceptionally dark purple or blue,
- decoration: dark-colored rim; mould-blown objects, mainly with so-called honeycomb pattern; other techniques, such as shallow-cut incisions and applied decoration are under-represented,
- presence of a typical Central Asian shape: so-called ‘tuvak’, unjustified in an all-Fatimid context: - recycling trade in the eastern Islamic world ?;
– question with regard to the place of production of relief-cut glass from the 9th to the 11th century: the Iranian, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian areas.
– almost total lack of inscriptions (either moulded or engraved, or painted) on glass from this period (one exception: glass weights): the studies of the glass are based on a comparative analysis of shapes, decoration, and technical details of objects;
– wide distribution of Islamic glass objects (traded high quality artistic products or glass objects used as containers): attribution to a specific place of production is almost impossible;
– trade in broken glass for recycling from the Middle East to the northern Mediterranean and to the Indian Ocean: the issue of distinguishing between local production and imported objects; difficulties with interpretation of the results of chemical analyses of objects made from mixed, recycled material.
• Glass from the Fatimid Period, some characteristics:
– glass production was affected by a lesser number of mutations, alterations and so on, than all other comparable media (pottery, rock-crystal, woodwork, metalwork, textiles);
– Fatimid Period as transition between the “early” and the “medieval” phases of Islamic art: this phenomenon in glass production corresponds, for example, to the transition between glass staining and enameling;
– the 11th century: common stylistic ground for lustre painting on pottery and staining on glass;
– interest of Fatimid glassmakers in gilding;
– late Fatimid period: production of gilded and enameled glass ? - matter of speculation;
– production of glass with marvered trails;
– glass found in the shipwreck from Serçe Limanı as an example of average glass from the first half of the 11th century, possibly from the Syrian region:
- color: colorless or lightly tinged glass, sometimes dark green, exceptionally dark purple or blue,
- decoration: dark-colored rim; mould-blown objects, mainly with so-called honeycomb pattern; other techniques, such as shallow-cut incisions and applied decoration are under-represented,
- presence of a typical Central Asian shape: so-called ‘tuvak’, unjustified in an all-Fatimid context: - recycling trade in the eastern Islamic world ?;
– question with regard to the place of production of relief-cut glass from the 9th to the 11th century: the Iranian, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian areas.
Version 5, données dudata date 30 janvier 2013January 30th 2013