Bowl with elaborate black, blue, aqua, and orange decoration
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

This bowl has a short cylindrical base and a round body that flares out slightly to form a narrow rim. It is glazed white all over, inside and out. It is painted with an intricate design that has has radial symmetry, creating six nearly identical sections. The center has a six-pointed star-like shape. Scrolling blue lines extend from this center to the bowl’s edges. Botanical aqua and orange shapes with black outlining weave between the blue lines. The bowl’s outside has a line of black script.

Gallery Text

As central control weakened in the Abbasid Empire, regional dynasties arose to support, challenge, or redefine the authority of the caliph in Baghdad. The arts flourished in many centers, and wealthy merchant and professional classes emerged. A dramatic increase in productivity and innovation and an unprecedented expansion of figural decoration characterize the arts of this period.

A transforming event was the influx of Turkic and Mongol peoples from Central and Inner Asia. Most of the objects in this case were created in lands ruled by the most important of the Turkic dynasties, the Great Seljuks (1038–1157), and their immediate successors, the Atabegs. The Mongol invasions into Islamic lands began in the early 1200s and culminated in the 1258 sack of Baghdad. Eventually, the Mongols established their rule as the Yuan dynasty in China, the Chagatay Khanate in Central Asia, the Golden Horde Khanate in southern Russia, and the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256–1335) in greater Iran. The integration of a vast Eurasian territory into the Mongol Empire facilitated commerce and communication, bringing fresh Chinese inspiration into Islamic art.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2002.50.114
Title
Bowl with Radial Design
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
late 12th-early 13th century
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Kashan
Period
Seljuk-Atabeg period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/160274

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2550, Art from Islamic Lands, The Middle East and North Africa
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Fritware painted with black (chromium), blue (cobalt), turquoise (copper), and brownish-red (iron) over white lead alkali glaze opacified with tin.
Technique
Mina’i
Dimensions
8.5 x 22.1 cm (3 3/8 x 8 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Mansour Gallery, London, 1972], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1972-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums 2002.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
Accession Year
2002
Object Number
2002.50.114
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
From the six-petaled ornament at the center of this bowl radiates an exquisite maze of arabesques and interlaced lines reminiscent of the plaited ascending letters in some Kufic inscriptions. Blue, black, light turquoise, and brownish red are painted over the opaque white glaze. The exterior bears a scrawled cursive pseudo-inscription. There are several cracks and repairs.

Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
28

Bowl with radial interlace design
Iran, Seljuk-Atabeg period, late 12th–early 13th century[1]
Fritware painted with black (chromium), blue (cobalt), turquoise (copper), and brownish-red (iron) over white lead alkali glaze opacified with tin
8.5 × 22.1 cm (3 3/8 × 8 11/16 in.)
2002.50.114

Published: McWilliams 2003, 243, 247, fig. 29.

From the six-petaled ornament at the center of this bowl radiates an exquisite maze of arabesques and interlaced lines reminiscent of the plaited ascending letters in some Kufic inscriptions. Blue, black, light turquoise, and brownish red are painted over the opaque white glaze. The exterior bears a scrawled cursive pseudo-inscription. There are several cracks and repairs. Although mīnāʾī bowls with abstract decoration are rarer than those with figural designs,[2[ similar examples can be found in the Khalili Collection, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[3]

Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım

[1] The bowl was last fired between 400 and 800 years ago, according to the results of thermoluminescence analysis carried out by Oxford Authentication Ltd. in 2011.
[2] Grube 1994, 216.
[3] Ibid., 216, fig. 237; McWilliams 2003, 248, fig. 31.

Publication History

  • Jessica Chloros, "An Investigation of Cobalt Pigment on Islamic Ceramics at the Harvard Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2008), Unpublished, pp. 1-41 passim
  • Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), pp. 50-51, ill.; pp 53-54, ill.; p. 188, cat.28, ill.

Exhibition History

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu