Luster Dish with Polo Player (1170–1200): Art, History and Details

Luster Dish with Polo Player (1170–1200) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Luster potters migrated to the city of Kashan in Iran where luster ware reached its greatest height during the 1170s until about 1220. This masterful dish features a mounted polo player, a figure representing the Iranian ideal of beauty with a round moon-like face and fine features.

Object facts

• Title: Luster Dish with Polo Player
• Date: 1170–1200
• Culture: Iran, Seljuq period (1037–1194)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: fritware with luster-painted design
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.2 x 35.5 cm (2 13/16 x 14 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1944.74

A detail from the museum

Where fine clay was unavailable, potters made a paste out of ground quartz, clay, and glass. When fired, the paste created a compact white material called fritware that approximated the appearance of porcelain.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dimand, Maurice Sven. Loan Exhibition of Ceramic Art of the Near East, New York, May 12 to June 28, MCMXXXI. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931.
• Dimand, Maurice Sven. Loan Exhibition of Ceramic Art of the Near East, New York, May 12 to June 28, MCMXXXI. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931.
• Pope, Arthur Upham, Phyllis Ackerman, and Theodore Bestermann. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. London: Oxford University Press, 1938.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.