Cleveland Museum of Art

Twelve-sided Ewer with Sphinxes and Human-Headed Inscriptions

Date: 1300–1350
Medium: hammered sheet of brass inlaid with silver
Culture: Iran, Khurasan, Ilkhanid period (1256–1353)
Department: Islamic Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

The spout and neck of the ewer display a crouching and seated lion in raised relief. Winged hare-like animals march around the top of the body, set off by foliate scrolls, while sphinxes process around the center. The bottom of the ewer’s body is encircled by an inscription with human heads, which only appear on metalwork in Islamic art. Ewers like this, and similar elaborate vessels, would have been used in court banquets and elite homes across the Islamic world. Calligraphy with human heads, known as animated script, developed in northeast Iran during the 1100s.

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