Islamic Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 23, no. 6 ...

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OPPOSITE: 34, 35. Bowl painted in blue and black, Persian (Aleshhed), XVI-XVI century. Diameter 155 inches. Gift of Nasli Heeramaneclk, 64.10o 36. Bottle painted in blue and blacl, Persian (Meshhed), xvi-xVII century. Height I 1 inches. Fletcher Fund, 64.58 Such comparisons can also help identify pieces that are not decorated in luster. Although Kashan is particularly known for its luster ware, it produced a number of other types of pottery as well. The design on a small bowl painted in black under a green glaze (Figure 29) is of particular interest, as it provides further evidence that a large group of similar vessels came from the Kashan workshops. Reserved in the black background are four birds, which on close inspection reveal themselves as the same type that appear on Kashan luster ware. The very fact that they are represented in reserve, rather than painted on a light ground, is a further similarity with luster technique. When, finally, the shape and fine white ceramic body of the bowl are taken into consideration, there can be little doubt that it was made in Kashan, probably in the early part of the thirteenth century. Kashan can with certainty be identified as the location of the workshop that produced two polychrome overglaze painted bowls of the so-called Minai type (Figures 30, 3i). Minai ware, besides being one of the most beautiful forms of pottery made in the Islamic world, is extremely interesting for its reflection of wall painting and text illustration, of which, as stated before, little has survived from before the thirteenth century. Popular all through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries but probably out of fashion after 1300, it poses many problems of dating and attribution. The two bowls recently acquired have the distinction of being signed by an artist who added to his name the nisbah (indication of place of origin) al-Kashani. One of the bowls, which is dated i86, bears the full signature of a painter called Abu Zayd. In the inscription of the second bowl, dated 1187, the name has been destroyed, but the nisbah al-Kashani remains intact, and it is likely, to judge from the style of decoration and the close date, that the piece is also the work of Abu Zayd. With this information these bowls are of supreme importance as documents for the identification of Minai ware from Kashan. Toward the end of the thirteenth century pottery making in Persia declined, although the Kashan workshops continued their activ-
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Page 1 and 2: j/ :, V p A v4 =Ai:
Page 3 and 4: THE GALLERIES OF ISLAMIC ART After
Page 5 and 6: excavated material, such as that fo
Page 7 and 8: There is a little cup (Figure 3) fo
Page 9 and 10: concave, which necessitated a vesse
Page 11 and 12: the Museum has recently acquired: F
Page 13 and 14: variety and avoid a stereotyped app
Page 15 and 16: The Art of Islamic Pottery E R N S
Page 17 and 18: alanced design consisting of two wo
Page 19 and 20: cially those that are well preserve
Page 21 and 22: the Tulunid and early Fatimid perio
Page 23 and 24: Because of the similarity of the ne
Page 25 and 26: the many types made in the twelfth
Page 27 and 28: OPPOSITE: 20. (above). Luster-paint
Page 29 and 30: half a century before the devastate
Page 31: ji ; i - 32. Detail of a miniature

Islamic Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 23, no. 6 ...

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