Fantastic fauna : decorative animals in Moslem ceramics

at night, the moon set the calendar, the changing, changeless sun led the procession of days and the swift birds of the sky live on in the ceramics.

It is curious to note that the most elaborate decorative detail belongs to the earliest period, with its minute scrolls and pin point lines on gold; the silhouette has stark beauty, the signed work of the masters a delicate tracery of sheer brush work, but as centuries pass a simplicity and economy of line, a directness of bold conception quite startlingly modern are evolved. We have a complete scale of conception and portrayal: it is a far cry from the lace-like creature on page one, the airy elegance of the two silhouetted peacocks, the black and white perfection of the dying swan (page 89) to the farm yard waddle of pages 86, 101, 104 and 62, and the humorously distorted and evil eyed creature on page 76, but all are conceived and depicted with the same zest.

The heraldic birds are, as a rule, merely heraldic, but variety of decorations helps to mitigate a certain stiffness of pose; on the earthenware twin birds twist their necks with playful grace. The uncouth fowls hovering over chalices have more of Christian symbolism than heraldic meaning although their expression is far from devout.

The Rabbit is at first plumply domesticated despite some elaborate markings; he chews a clover leaf and seems ready for the pot. In the silhouette all is changed, there is vivacity, slim grace of line and free movement... Here is a joyous long eared rabbit (page 120 No. 4) and even a mad March Hare (page 124 No. 4); in the pottery the rendering is more clumsy but the meaning is just as apparent : it is springtime and the world is young.