Rock Crystal Ewers
Rock crystal ewers are pitchers carved from a single block of rock crystal. They were made by Islamic Fatimid artisans and are considered to be amongst the rarest objects in Islamic art. There are a few that survived and are now in collections across Europe. They are often in cathedral treasuries, where they were rededicated after being captured from their original Islamic settings. Made in Egypt in the late 10th century, the ewer pictured is exquisitely decorated with fantastic birds, beasts and twisting tendrils. The Treasure of Caliph Mostansir-Billah at Cairo, which was destroyed in 1062, apparently contained 1800 rock crystal vessels.
Great skill was required to hollow out the raw rock crystal without breaking it and to carve the delicate, often very shallow, decoration.
Read more about this topic: Fatimid Art
Famous quotes containing the words rock and/or crystal:
“each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. After the war, everyone had a car—no wings for it—and the promised superhighway to drive it down, so that the sky itself darkened, and the fumes ate the marble and pitted the miracle crystal.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)