tour 12 of 21
The art of glass
Lustre painted bowl
Egyptian glassmakers of the Fatimid dynasty (AD
969-1171) produced quantities of fine, thin-bodied and clear glass
vessels. They were decorated in a variety of techniques, many of
them inherited from the skilled and prolific glass workshops of the
Roman period. This small glass bowl is decorated in a technique
better known from pottery: lustre. The vessel was painted with a
mixture containing copper oxides which fused with the glass when
the vessel was heated in a reduction kiln (which limited the oxygen
supply). This created a metallic lustrous sheen. It was a skilful
process which had been practised in Egypt since the eighth century,
if not earlier.
The ribbed
glass and lustre rays create a solar design when viewed from below:
the bowl may have been used as a lamp, suspended from a collar
below the flaring rim.