Mina'i ware
Mina'i ware is a type of
It is significant as the first pottery to use
The period also introduced
Most pieces are bowls, cups, and a range of pouring vessels: ewers, jars, and jugs, only a handful very large. There are some pieces considered to be begging bowls, or using the shape associated with that function. Tiles are rare, and were perhaps designed as centrepieces surrounded by other materials, rather than placed in groups.[12] Mina'i tiles found in situ by archaeologists at Konya in modern Turkey were probably made there by itinerant Persian artists.[13] Sherds of mina'i ware have been excavated from "most urban sites in Iran and Central Asia" occupied during the period,[14] although most writers believe that nearly all production was in Kashan.[15]
Wares and dates
Black and
A small proportion (smaller than for lustreware) of pieces are signed and dated. Watson records ten such pieces, signed by three potters, with dates from 1178 to 1219. For Kashan lustreware the equivalent numbers are "over ninety" pieces, "perhaps six" potters, and dates from 1178 and 1226; there are then no dated pieces until 1261, suggesting the long-lasting disruption of the Mongol invasion.[21] That the two techniques might be produced by the same workshop is demonstrated by the Persian potter from this period with the most signed pieces, Abū Zayd ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Zayd from Kashan, with 15 pieces. The earliest date on these is 1187,[22] on a mina'i bowl, but most pieces are lustreware, where dates extend to 1219.[23]
Under the Mongol
The study of mina'i ware is complicated by a good deal of excessive restoration and embellishment by dealers after the pieces attracted the attention of collectors, mostly in the West, from the late 19th century onwards.[25] For example, the catalogue entry for a bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the Robert Lehman collection, records that "Extensive restoration has interfered with the inscription in certain areas, and nearly every part of the interior decoration has been subjected to heavy overpainting".[26]
Iconography
There are a few pieces with entirely abstract or geometric patterns or designs, but in the great majority of pieces there are figures, usually a number of small ones. Images of enthroned rulers, flanked by attendants, are common, as are figures of riders, who are often engaged in princely pursuits such as hunting and falconry. The "inscrutable rulers were probably never meant to represent particular rulers or their consorts", any more than the loving couples.[28] Similar motifs abound in other media; it is not clear to what extent they reflected the actual lifestyle of the owners or users of pieces; probably these "may indicate a general middle-class aspiration or identification" with the princely lifestyle.[29]
A well-known low bowl in the Freer Gallery of Art (reconstructed from fragments) is exceptional, both in its size of 47.8 cm across, and in its design; it is the largest known plate in the mina'i technique.[34] There are a very large number of figures, all at the small size typical of other, smaller, pieces. They are engaged in a battle, probably a specific event of the period when "an Assassin stronghold was attacked by a petty Iranian prince and his troops". The eight principal figures on the victorious side are named in inscriptions next to them,[35] with Turkish names, and a siege engine and an elephant appear in the scene.[36] This bowl is dated to the early 13th century.[37]
This piece may well follow a depiction in a wall painting or other medium,[38] as may a "celebrated" beaker, now also in the Freer, which is the fullest example of an iconographic scheme taken from the Persian literary classics, in this case the Shahnameh. Here a whole story is told in a number of scenes in three registers running round the cup.[39]
Context
Mina'i ware began to be made when Persia was in theory part of the Seljuk Empire, whose ruling dynasty and top elite were ethnically Turkish. But Persia was ruled by the Khwarazmian dynasty, also of Turkic origin, initially as vassals of the Seljuk, until in 1190 they severed these ties and ruled independently until the devastating Mongol conquest beginning in 1219. Although generally described as belonging to the "Seljuk period", some of the "most iconic" productions of stonepaste vessels can actually be attributed to the Khwarazmian rulers, after the end of Seljuk domination.[41]
The fifty years from 1150 saw great developments in Iranian ceramics. Firstly the fritware body and the glazes used on it were greatly improved, which allowed thinner walls and some of the translucency of
The "white ware" body was, however, not able to match Chinese porcelain in strength, and though historians praise the delicacy and lightness of Mina'i and lustred pieces, they are dubious about the practicality of these expensive wares, because of their fragility. Ceramics were not
Though luxurious considered as pottery, the new Persian lustre and mina'i wares may have represented a cost-saving alternative for vessels using precious metals, either in solid form or as inlays on brass or bronze. As early as 1100 the economy of the Seljuk empire was weakening and silver in short supply.[46]
Lustreware was not a new technique; it had been used in the Arabic-speaking world for some centuries,[47] but was new to Persia. Its spread there has been connected to a flight of potters from Fustat (Cairo) during the turbulent collapse of Fatimid Egypt around 1160. Since the shapes in Persian lustreware are traditional local ones, it is likely the refugee artisans were mostly pottery painters rather than potters. Lustreware painting styles can be connected to earlier ones in Arabic-speaking lands in a way that is not possible for mina'i ware, whose style, and possibly artists, are normally taken to be drawn from manuscript painting.[48] It is even more clear to scholars that lustreware production was concentrated in Kashan than it is for mina'i ware.[49]
The mina'i style was soon being copied in other parts of the Seljuk empire, especially Syria. But the makers did not know the secrets of the overglaze technique and used underglaze painting instead.[50] The secrets of lustreware at least may have been held by a small number of families in Kashan.[51] The later Persian mīnākārī style was and is enamel on a metal base, practiced from the 18th century to the present.[52]
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Bowl with ruler and sphinxes
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Enthroned figure flanked by attendants.[53]
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Bahram Gur hunting with Azadeh; 3 5/8 x 8 3/8in. (9.2 x 21.3 cm)
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Rider in centre, with sphinxes in a band
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Jug with figures, combining lustre painting (top) and mina'i; 22.5 × 12.8 cm (8.8 × 5 in)
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Beggar's bowl with sphinxes & seated figures; colours include gilding
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Beaker with seated figures
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Couple
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Jug with mounted falconer
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Bowl with abstract pattern, 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm) across
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Star tile withRustamand dragon
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"Faceted Basin", with gilding over the pattern raised in slip. After 1200.[54]
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Albarello jar in the succeeding "lajvardina" style; after 1250
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Ewer with gold lustre, 1190-1210
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Bowl with Seated Figures by a Pond, Iran 1211-12, Ashmolean Museum
Notes
- ^ Canby, # 22
- ^ Komaroff, 4; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 76; Fitzwilliam Museum: "Mina’i, meaning ‘enamelled’ ware, is one of the glories of Islamic ceramics, and was a speciality of the renowned ceramics centre of Kashan in Iran during the decades of the late 12th and early 13th centuries preceding the Mongol invasions". Grube mentions a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum dated 1242, but this is not mentioned by later writers.
- ^ Yale, 175
- ^ Yale, 175
- ^ Needham, 618; Watson (2012), 326; Watson (1985), 24; Gulbenkian, 54
- ^ Suleman, 144
- Ilkhanidcourt.
- ^ Yale, 175
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 57
- ^ Watson (2012), 326
- ^ Suleman, 144; Grube
- ^ Canby, #s 19, 20
- ^ Canby, 82–83, 315, note 12 on #20
- ^ Canby, 318, note 6 on #37
- ^ Watson (2012), 329; Yale, 177–178
- ^ "Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org.
- ^ Osborne, 144
- ^ "Faceted Basin, Mina'i ("enameled") ware, early 13th century", with Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 355.
- ^ Yale, 175; one illustrated below; another example
- ^ "Bowl, LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org.
- ^ (2012), 328
- ^ "Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org.
- ^ "Abu Zayd." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed June 2, 2020; subscription required).
- ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Il-Khanids iv; Ceramics"; "Covered Jar (Albarello)" Metropolitan Museum (see catalogue entry); Watson (2012), 336; "Three Tiles with 'Lajvardina' Glaze", Metropolitan Museum; Osborne, 144
- ^ Watson (2012), 336, note 43; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 66–69
- ^ Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff, in The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 356. The outside of this lobed bowl is illustrated here.
- ^ Yale, 175–176; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 72–76; other side
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 73
- ^ Watson (2012), 328 quoted; Yale, 175; Canby, 72–73, #37, #71
- ^ Yale, 175; Canby, 72–73, #37
- ^ Canby, 318, note 5 on #39
- ^ Holod, Renata (1 January 2012). "The Freer Gallery's Siege Scene Plate". Ars Orientalis.
- ^ "Bowl". Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.
- ^ Holod, 195
- ^ Holod, 196
- ^ Holod, throughout; Yale, 175 quoted
- ^ "Bowl". Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.
- ^ Holod, 209; Grube
- ^ Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 72–76, 72 quoted
- ^ Catalogue entry from Metropolitan Museum. Inside of the same bowl
- ^ "While stonepaste vessels are often attributed to the Seljuq period, some of the most iconic productions in the medium took place after this dynasty lost control over its eastern territories to other Central Asian Turkic groups, such as the Khwarezm-Shahis" in Rugiadi, Martina. "Ceramic Technology in the Seljuq Period: Stonepaste in Syria and Iran in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries". www.metmuseum.org. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2021). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
- ^ Osborne, 144–145; Caiger-Smith, 57–65; (2012), 325–326
- ^ Savage, 86–87; Caiger-Smith, 65–66; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, throughout, especially 76–86, give an account of a technical examination by various methods of one important piece, made up of many fragments.
- ^ Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 69, note 6
- ^ Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 76–86
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 59
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 20–55
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 57–59
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 57–59; Yale, 178; Watson (2012), 328–329
- ^ Pitcher in the National Museum of Damascus, Discover Islamic art
- ^ Caiger-Smith, 59
- ^ Borjian, Habib (2007), Isfahan xiii. CRAFTS, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIV, Fasc. 1, pp.48–55
- ^ Canby, # 27
- ^ "Faceted Basin, Mina'i ("enameled") ware Iranian". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
References
- ISBN 0571135072
- Canby, Sheila R., and others ( Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, A. C. S. Peacock), Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs, 2016, Metropolitan Museum of Art, google books
- Grube, Ernst J., “CERAMICS xiv. The Islamic Period, 11th–15th centuries,”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, V/3
- "Gulbenkian", Only the Best: Masterpieces of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, eds. Katharine Baetjer, James David Draper, 1999, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 0870999265, 9780870999260, google books
- Holod, Renata, "Event and Memory: The Freer Gallery's Siege Scene Plate", Ars Orientalis, vol. 42, 2012, pp. 194–219. JSTOR, JSTOR, Accessed 10 June 2020.
- Komaroff, Linda, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353, 2002, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 1588390713, 9781588390714, google books
- Michelsen, Leslee Katrina and Olafsdotter, Johanna, "Telling Tales: Investigating a Mīnāʾī Bowl", chapter 4 in Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod, ed. David J. Roxburgh, 2014, BRILL, ISBN 9004280286, 9789004280281
- Morgan, Peter, "Il-khanids, iv, Ceramics; Production", Encyclopaedia Iranica
- ISBN 0521838339, 9780521838337, google books
- Osborne, Harold (ed), The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts, 1975, OUP, ISBN 0198661134
- Savage, George, Pottery Through the Ages, Penguin, 1959
- Suleman, Fahmida, "Ceramics", in Medieval Islamic Civilization: an Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, 2006, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0415966914, 9780415966917, google books
- "Yale": Richard Ettinghausen, ISBN 9780300088694
- Watson, Oliver (1985), Persian Lustre Ware, 1985, Faber & Faber,
- Watson, Oliver (2012), "Pottery under the Mongols" in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, 2012, BRILL, Ed. Linda Komaroff, ISBN 9004243402, 9789004243408, google books
External links
- McClary, Richard Piran (2021). "Mīnāʾī ware". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
- "SCHOLAR FAVORITES: 12th–13th Century Mina’i Enamel Ware with Dr. Morris Rossabi", Video (7:18) via YouTube, from the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design