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Glazed dish with geometric and scrollwork designs
Byzantine
Byzantine
second half of the 12th century
Object Place: Anatolia
Medium/Technique
Ceramic; fine-sgraffito technique, white slip
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 4 × 21.6 cm (1 9/16 × 8 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mohammed Yeganeh
Accession Number1970.327
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionThis hollow dish is decorated using the fine-sgraffito technique, which is characterized by fine incisions that create a delicate, lace-like effect. A compass, whose point is visible at the center of the dish, was used to draw the circles that divide up the dish’s decoration into sections. At the dish’s center is a round medallion filled with a diamond shape divided into eight sections, filled with triangles exposing the red clay beneath the slip. Scroll-like tendrils emanate outwards from the central medallion. Incrustations suggest it was possibly part of a shipwreck.
Provenance1970, gift of Mohammad Yeganeh (dealer; b. 1929 - d. 2012), Frankfurt, to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 8, 1970)