  About the Artwork
  
  
  When a server poured drinks from this rooster-headed ewer, the effect must have delighted guests. As the pourer grasped the vessel's tail-shaped handle, the beverage would have flowed from the opening in the beak.

To create the ewer, potters made a solid inner layer to hold the liquid contents and a decorative outer shell with carved openwork. Painting sphinxes, spotted deer, and harpies (birds with the heads of human women) amid a swirling background, they articulated details with black slip (liquid clay) before covering the vessel in a turquoise glaze. These specialized techniques, requiring great skill, made this work an expensive luxury object.
  
  
  Title
  Ewer with Rooster Head
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca.1200
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Iranian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Underglaze slip-painted fritware
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 10 3/4 × 6 3/4 × 6 inches (27.3 × 17.1 × 15.2 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Ceramics
  
  
  Department
  Islamic Art
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase with funds from Founders Junior Council, Henry Ford II Fund, Benson and Edith Ford Fund, J. Lawrence Buell, Jr. Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1989.34
  
  
  Copyright
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