Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Ewer, Signed by Ibn Yazid
Not on view
This elegantly shaped metal ewer is an everyday object transformed into a sophisticated work of art. The Arabic inscription in Kufic script around the rim identifies the artist: "Blessings to he who fashioned it, Ibn Yazid, part of what was made at Basra in the year sixty-nine." The vessel combines Byzantine-inspired surface decorations with a pear-shaped body, long neck, high-flaring foot, and half-palmette-shaped handle related to post-Sasanian metalwork. The ewer’s heavy form and the faceting on its body and neck suggest a late eighth- or ninth-century date.
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