Dual purpose

Basin, Brasero

(Valencia, Spain, ca. 1450-75)
Tin glazed earthenware with cobalt and copper luster decoration
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; anonymous gift 1992.397

no. 85

Glazed ceramics decorated with luster made by Muslim potters in thirteenth-century Málaga provided the technical and stylistic impetus for similar wares made by Christians in later centuries. The technique of luster decoration, invented in the eighth century for decorating glassware, was developed in Iraq in the ninth century as a means of decorating ceramics with a thin film of precious metal that makes the surface glitter. Carried by artisans first to Egypt, and then eastward to Syria and Iran and westward to Spain, the technique was very expensive because of the costly materials, additional firing, and special reducing kiln needed to fix the decoration. It was therefore a closely guarded secret passed down through families of potters. By the early thirteenth century, Málaga, the major Mediterranean port of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, had become noted for its lusterwares, and the name of the city gave rise to maiolica, a term that referred to the tin-glazed wares produced by fifteenth-century European potters, who produced large chargers and basins typically decorated with animals or heraldic insignia. These objects were often gifts to European royalty. For example, in 1289, the year before her death, Eleanor of Castile, sister of Alfonso X of Spain who was married to Edward I of England, received 56 pieces of Málaga lusterware, presumably similar to this example.