The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

A circular, earthenware dish with loose cream and burnt orange organic patterns. Central, a circle features a goblet-like glass surrounded by frenetic lines. The band around it features repeated loose swirls and dots. The final band, where the plate rises up at the rim, alternates between four, solid, burnt orange frilly leaves and four, circular, pomegranate-like shapes. Each band is edged with a solid burnt orange and smaller, solid cream line.

Dish

c. 1475–1500

Spain, probably Valencia

Tin-glazed earthenware with luster-painted design
Diameter: 42.6 cm (16 3/4 in.)
Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1915.712
Location: 116 Islamic

Did You Know?

A wine cup in the center of the dish evokes the pleasures of a feast.

Description

Alternating leaves and pomegranates circle the rim of this dish, emerging from the swirling vegetal motif in the background. The pomegranate is a common decorative element in Islamic art. It is mentioned in the Qur’an as one of the fruits of paradise and is prized for its beauty and nutritional benefits. The use of the pomegranate on this luminous dish may indicate that it was produced for the court of the Nasrid dynasty (1232–1492) in Spain. The palace of Alhambra, the seat of power for the emirs, dynastic Muslim rulers, from the early 1300s, is in Granada, which translates to pomegranate.
  • ?-1915
    Hinman B. Hurlbut [1819-1884], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1915-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Art of the Islamic World (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 21, 2021-May 31, 2022).
    Al-Andalus: Art from Islamic Spain (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2019-October 25, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Dish|url=false|author=|year=c. 1475–1500|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.712