Bowl with birds

This bowl with a carinated body stands on a ring base. Parallel decorations are painted in black and green on a yellow ochre ground. In the centre, a chequered motif recalls the decoration of certain Berber carpets[1]. On either side, two strips with an ochre yellow ground are decorated with four stylised, long and thin-legged birds with a long neck, separated by circular geometrical motifs filled with eight-petalled rosettes. Above each bird, a pseudo-inscription suggests the letters lam-alif.

This object shows great technical skill: the organisation of the space is perfect and there is admirable harmony in the alternating use of colours. The theme of the bird is very widespread in Aghlabid ceramics. In a bowl discovered in Bulla-Regia in Tunisia[2], seven stylised birds surrounding a peacock are curiously reminiscent of those on this bowl.

We know nothing at all about how the theme was introduced into Ifriqiya in the ninth century, nor how it disappeared, probably during the course of the Fatimid era in the eleventh century. It is likely that the representation of the unmoving, stereotypical birds illustrative of the decorative naïveté of African art originated in the Berber substratum. This is the case of other motifs, such as squares, empty and radiating circles, chequered patterns and round spots. Birds may also be seen in Andalusian ceramics[3]. The motif is scarcely to be found at the Qala'a (castle) of Banu Hammad, but can be seen in thirteenth century Italian ceramics, mainly on small Sicilian early majolica bowls of the Gela[4] type. The theme also appears in objects produced in other Mediterranean towns like Marseille[5]. In the lustred ceramics of Fatimid Egypt, the bird motif is a favourite animal theme, along with the hare and the gazelle. The style, however, is more refined and lifelike.

The theme of the bird was frequently used in Eastern Muslim countries from the ninth century onwards. It is usually found with yellow (on an iron oxide base), green (with a copper oxide base) and brown (with a manganese oxide base) and was continued in Ifriqiya, where Raqqada yellow is a particular colour. For a considerable length of time, these colours were common to the ceramic production of the Western Mediterranean, and consequently fundamental to the artistic unity of the geographical area. However, archaeologists and historians have still to discover the precise landmarks of the itineraries these motifs and techniques took.

[2] At the Bulla-Regia Museum, inv. 71.

[3] Ninth century dish found in Denia (Spain), town archelogical museum, inv. DE-C-91-19-41-001.

[4] Small bowl from Santa Giacomo Church, Gela, Sicily, thirteenth century. Early majolica, Denia, Archeological Museum, inv. SN.

[5] Bowl, clay ceramic with painted brown and green decoration, thirteenth century, Marseille, Musée d'Histoire, inv. MHM93.5.59.