The Wade Cup with Animated Script (1200–1221): Art, History and Details

The Wade Cup with Animated Script (1200–1221) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The highlight of the cup’s decoration is the inscription around the rim, which you see on the walls around you, with letters composed of human figures, animals, and birds. This is known as animated script and it developed in northeast Iran or Afghanistan during the mid-1100s and migrated westward. The inscription on the rim of the Wade Cup is the pinnacle of this form of script with its full-figure animation. The body of the cup is covered with interlacing bands of compartments containing tiny figures of humans and animals. These represent the 12 signs of the zodiac from astrology, the practice of interpreting the influence of planets and stars on earthly affairs. Astrology began in Mesopotamia, was adopted by the Greeks, and then absorbed into medieval Islamic culture through translations of Greek texts.

Object facts

• Title: The Wade Cup with Animated Script
• Date: 1200–1221
• Culture: Iran, Seljuq period of Iran (1037–1194)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: brass inlaid with silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.); Diameter: 16.1 cm (6 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1944.485

A detail from the museum

This is known as the Wade Cup, after J. H. Wade who bequeathed the funds for its acquisition

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Rice, D. S. The Wade Cup in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Paris: Éditions du Chêne, 1955.
• Ettinghausen, Richard. “The ‘Wade Cup’ in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Its Origin and Decorations.” Ars Orientalis, vol. 2, 1957, pp. 327–366.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.