Glazing

Glazing on medieval Russian pottery is a bit of mystery for me. Very few photographs exist of extant pieces, leaving vague line drawings as the only source of pictoral information to those of us who are unable to travel to Russia herself and look at the pieces directly.

What I have been able to find is a less than thorough archaelogical text with line drawings of what appears to be glazed pieces. Sadly, upon translating the text as best I could with a Russian-English dictionary, I surmise that these pieces were imported from another country. Quite possibly from Byzantium given their design and estimated date.

This bottle or decanter would possibly have been used for wine or other celebratory drink. Notice the interplay of geometric designs with the animal element. It reminds me of Ancient Greek wares which exhibited geometric bands of decoration to frame figures in action.

I really enjoy the alternating rondels and birds on this bowl. This is a very Byzantine looking piece.

The design of this bowl nicely illustrates the use of geometric repetition in design. There are examples of metal bowls done in repousse that also exhibit such intricate designs.