Rozane Mongol bowl c. 1904

This is John J. Herold’s Rozane Mongol bowl, fired in clay, and glazed with such precision! It’s like the material itself is in dialogue here, isn’t it? The bowl is bathed in this deep, claret red, so uniform, like a pool of light has solidified. Look at the way the light catches on the rounded surface, pooling, and slipping away to dark shadows in the inside. The handles are particularly interesting. I wonder if Herold considered them as individual sculptures, in the round? The surface is smooth, almost liquid, but you know it comes from the earth. The way the glaze accentuates the form reminds me of how Lucio Fontana would slice into his monochrome canvases, opening up space. What’s inside this bowl? What does it contain? It could hold anything. And maybe that's the point.