Bowl

Made for Amir Abu Nasr Kirmanshah
Bowl: deep, with a foliated rim; high, hollow foot. Broken and repaired.
Clay: soft, white.
Glaze: cream-white.
Decoration: painted over glaze in pale blue and green, with areas of tomato-red; linear details in black and gold. Inscriptions both inside and outside.

Maker(s)
Patron: Abu Nasr Kirmanshah
Historical period(s)
Saljuq period, late 12th-early 13th century
Medium
Stone-paste body painted under glaze and over glaze with enamel (mina'i)
Dimensions
H x Diam: 9 x 18.9 cm (3 9/16 x 7 7/16 in)
Geography
Iran
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1927.3
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Bowl

Keywords
elephant, Iran, kufic script, portrait, Saljuq period (1037 - 1300)
Provenance

1927
Parish-Watson Company, New York 1927 [1]

From 1927
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Parish-Watson Company, New York in 1927 [2]

Notes:

[1] Object file, undated folder sheet note. Also see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file, Collections Management Office.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Parish-Watson Company

Description

Made for Amir Abu Nasr Kirmanshah
Bowl: deep, with a foliated rim; high, hollow foot. Broken and repaired.
Clay: soft, white.
Glaze: cream-white.
Decoration: painted over glaze in pale blue and green, with areas of tomato-red; linear details in black and gold. Inscriptions both inside and outside.

Label

This eight-lobed bowl harmoniously combines figural, abstract, and calligraphic designs and is typical of some of the finest medieval Persian ceramics. The bowl is decorated with enamel paint, and a princely figure on a large and powerful elephant dominates the center. A band of kufic inscription offering blessings and good wishes surrounds him. The exterior inscription celebrates the qualities of a certain Abu Nasr Kirmanshah, the patron of this finely decorated bowl.

Published References
  • Freer Gallery of Art. Gallery Book III: Exhibition of September 5, 1933. Washington, September 5, 1933. .
  • , Eva Baer, David Nicolle, Barbara Schmitz, Oliver Watson. The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia. Costa Mesa, California. fig. 136.
  • Masterpieces of Western and Near Eastern Ceramics. 8 vols., Tokyo and New York. pl. 46.
  • Richard Ettinghausen, Ernst Kuhnel. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. 6 vols., London and New York, 1938 - 1939. vol. 1: p. 892; vol. 2: pp. 1564-65; vol. 3: p. 2359, vol. 5, pl. 663a.
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 283.
  • Unknown title. Boston, September 26, 1938. p. 8.
  • Richard Ettinghausen. Medieval Near Eastern Ceramics in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and Baltimore. p. 33.
  • Randall L. Pouwels. African and Middle Eastern World, 600-1500. The Medieval and Early Modern World New York. p. 62.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Ceramics from the World of Islam. Exh. cat. Washington, 1973. cat. 39, pp. 90-91.
  • Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from Kuwait. Exh. cat. New York. p. 107, fig. 16.
  • Gaston Wiet. Un Bol en Faience du XIIe Siecle. vol. 1, no. 1 Ann Arbor. pp. 118-120.
  • Mehmet Aga-Oglu. A Minai Bowl of the Late Tenth Century. vol. 62, no. 362 London, May 1933. p. 208.
  • Marianna Shreve Simpson. The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts New York and London. p. 268.
  • Eleanor Sims, Boris I. Marshak, Ernst Grube. Peerless Images: Persian Painting and its Sources. New Haven and London. p. 290.
  • Grace Dunham Guest. Letter: A Minai Bowl of the Late 10th Century. vol. 63, no. 369 London, December 1933. p. 291.
Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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