The Pitti Ewer
The Pitti Ewer
Title: The Pitti Ewer
Date: 1,000-1,008 CE
Medium: Rock Crystal
Credit Line: Palazzo Pitti, Florence (Inv. No. 1917)
The Pitti Ewer was created during the Fatimid Caliphate and is thought to be dedicated to the general al-Husayn b. Jawhar.1 The ewer was used in formal dining events for pouring drinks for royalty or wealthy individuals; formal dining events were popular in the Islamic community to bring friends and family together. The ewer was used in formal dining events because it was made out of rock crystal, a classification of quartz that cannot easily absorb heat. Unfortuneately, the ewer was dropped in 1998 causing it to shatter into 80 pieces.2 The piece has since been restored; however, the ewer will never be able to reflect light as it once did.
1. Walker, Paul, The Pitti Palace Rock Crystal Ewer and the Sordid Story of How and Why It Came to Exist (Journal of Near Eastern studies 77, no. 1 2018), 1.
2. Anna Contadini, “Facets of Light: The Case of Rock Crystals” in God Is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth : Light in Islamic Art and Culture, ed. Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 125.