The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

and to her left is a bottle-shaped flask typical of the metal ewers of
the Fatimid period.
The negative space between the lute player and the rim is filled
with irregular shapes of tightly scrolled spirals. These became a typical
decorative convention in Fatimid ceramic art and appear to be an
abstracted form of vine-scroll. They ornament the edge of another
dish in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, depicting a seated woman
wearing a crown and holding two wine beakers. This figure is more
emblematic in character and there is less anatomical sophistication,
but there is a lively surface pattern dominated by heart-shaped
palmette scrolls decorating her dress. Her hairstyle with curling side
locks and long plaits represents a figurative convention appearing in a
number of ceramic pieces and stylistically relates to the early figure
paintings of Samarra. Curls on the forehead and in the side locks also
appear in male portraits and can be seen in the fragments of another
dish in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, showing a richly clad
languid figure pouring wine into a beaker. The ease and linear fluency
of this image recalls the red-figure vase painting of Greece in the
fourth century BC.
Among the company of wine-drinkers and musicians in Fatimid
art, the familiar scarf dancer turns up in a ceramic dish in the Freer
Gallery of Art, Washington. Flanked by wine flasks and surrounded by
spiralling scrollwork, she holds a pose which can best be described as
one of genuflexion, a stylized convention for movement adopted in a
number of figurative motifs across the arts. Her awkward posture
contrasts with the realism and expression displayed in the fragments
of a bowl depicting two wrestlers in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo.
The painting shows white figures against a golden-brown lustre
background drawn with remarkable linear precision, depicting not
just the bearded protagonists stripped to the waist, but also the
animated arm and hand gestures of a number of excited spectators. A
similar lively scene of cock-fighting is displayed on a monochrome
lustre-painted dish in the Keir Collection, Richmond. Two figures,
representing a man and woman, look at each other in a spirit of
confrontation as they clutch and restrain their birds before the contest.
Also in the Keir Collection another note of realism can be seen in
a bowl representing a labourer with a basket strapped to his back.
In a more pious mood, a number of works were made for
Christian clients. In the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
there is a lustre bowl depicting a Coptic priest in an elaborate gown
decorated with spirals, carrying a lamp or thurible at arm’s length.
On the left-hand side is a motif that has been interpreted as either
top: Monochrome lustre dish with reclining lady:
eleventh to twelfth century.
above: Monochrome lustre dish with scarf dancer
(Freer Galley of Art).
The Decorative Arts of the Tulunids and Fatimids 85