The Museum · the collection
Luster Bowl with Winged Horse
Unidentified potter, Iran, late 12th century. Iran.
Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.
A winged horse prances in the center of this bowl among swirling plant stems, with its tail and wings curling into the pattern around it. The bowl was painted in luster, a technique that uses metallic compounds fired onto the glaze. In good light, it shimmers like gold or copper, and its color shifts as you move. Potters in Iran were masters of luster in the twelfth century, and their bowls and tiles were prized far beyond the region. A band of writing-like decoration runs around the rim. The horse seems mid-leap, as if the bowl itself might take flight. Imagine catching it in candlelight, and seeing the gold wake up.
Look closely
- Find where the horse’s wings begin.
- Follow one plant stem as it curls through the background.
- Look at the band around the rim. What does it remind you of?
While you sit
A flying horse, caught in gold on a bowl. Let your thoughts take flight too, or stay still while it leaps.
Your seat in the galleries: a curved bench of burnished brass with a cream cushion that catches the light.
About the work
- Title
- Luster Bowl with Winged Horse
- Artist
- Unidentified potter, Iran
- Date
- late 12th century
- From
- Iran
- Medium
- Stonepaste; luster-painted on opaque monochrome glaze
- Size
- H. 3 1/4 in (8.3 cm)
- Rights
- Public domain
- Image
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
- Record
- The museum's page for this work
The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.
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