Date

12-1-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The foundation for this examination rests upon prior research analyzing ceramic traditions and trade routes across East Asia and the Islamic Empires from the eighth to the sixteenth centuries. This knowledge establishes how East Asian innovations, such as porcelain and underglaze techniques, flowed westward through the Middle East via silk trade routes, profoundly influencing South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Ottoman ceramic production and aesthetics. They were able to trace how crucial Islamic technical traditions, including lusterware and tin-glazing, were subsequently transmitted to the Mediterranean basin through conquest and trade. This provided the technical vocabulary necessary for European precursors such as Spanish Lusterware and Italian Maiolica. The technical legacy of tin-glazing continued to influence ceramic production, such as Dutch Delftware. By the eighteenth century, Islamic aesthetics manifested as Orientalism and Turquerie, making Islamic forms desirable for elite consumption, as seen in Meissen porcelain. This interest intensified in the nineteenth century, sparking a technical resurgence where European manufacturers would address their debt by rediscovering and adapting Islamic glazing chemistry to industrially refine luster and tin glazing. This technological boom presented opportunities for the Arts and Crafts movement and figures like William de Morgan, who directly emulated Persian Lusterwares and employed palettes inspired by Iznik ceramics. Crucially, European manufacturers simultaneously leveraged industrial methods such as transfer printing to customize and export mass-produced earthenware featuring Islamic motifs back to the Islamic world, demonstrating a complex, transactional, and commercial dynamic based on the Islamic aesthetics they appropriated. This paper highlights this historical debt, showcasing how the migration of Islamic ideas led directly to the developmental shifts extending into the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, and discovering its presence as far west as North American museums, private estates, and auction houses.

Department

Classical Archaeology and Art History

Thesis Committee

Dr. Beatrice St. Laurent, Thesis Advisor
Dr. Jonathan Shirland, Committee Member
Dr. Sean H. McPherson, Committee Member

Copyright and Permissions

Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

Download

Included in

Ceramic Arts Commons

Share

COinS