This is a wonderful example of an Islamic bowl with a painted and lustered foot, decorated with a large cross. The painting is rather well preserved on the inside but there are some cracks on the outside, partially erasing the frieze that adorns the upper edge. The white slip covering the beige colored surface is still visible, highlighting the strong contrast of the brown painting.

The interior of the bowl is divided into four quarters by a large white cross containing a blue-colored band which partially faded. The quarters are ornamented with palm leaves and interlacings that are arranged geometrically. The outer border is decorated with a frieze of elongated hearts that are placed between two lines.

The Islamic kingdoms have particularly developed the art of faience by creating a rich geometric and plant vocabulary and integrating innovations of the Chinese production, some examples of which reached the Near East via the Silk Road.

Spain, where one of the richest and brightest kingdoms of the Arab conquest has grown, saw the flourishing of an intense intellectual and cultural activity under the impulse of the Cordobean Umayyads (756), then of the Caliphs (929) and finally of the different kingdoms that resulted from the fall of this initial organization (11th - 13th century).

Our bowl can be linked with the artistic production of the Nasrid dynasty kingdom of Grenade. Founded in 1238 by Mohammed ibn Nasr, it was the last Muslim bastion on the Iberian Peninsula until its surrender, in 1492, before the assaults of Isabella the Catholic and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Despite its delicate political situation between the Christian kingdoms of the Reconquista and the North African Almohades, the kingdom of Grenade marks the climax of Muslim culture in Spain. The rulers gave the arts and sciences a special place producing an unequaled refinement in Al-Andalus. Stone and precious wood work, marble slab, gypsum and earthenware therefore decorate the Palace of the Alhambra, the construction of which began under Yusuf I (1333-1353).

Large ceramic centers are attested under the Nasiri: Almeria, and Malaga that undoubtedly dominates the production and whose name is internationally renowned. Evidences of this luster pottery that includes cobalt blue on white ground to the brown/ochre can be indeed found in England, in France and in Sicily.

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