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拍品專文
The inscription around the neck, possibly in Persian or Arabic, is not benedictory or historical. It has not been deciphered.
This jar is the most outstanding example of Seljuk ceramic with polychrome glaze painted decoration (mina'i). Its monumental size and its highly accomplished figural decoration display complete technical prowess. Although fragmentary, this unique piece is one of the best illustrations of the mastery reached by Iranian potters before the Mongol invasions. This jar must be considered as a masterpiece of Islamic ceramics.
The clue to the understanding of this very elaborate technique of decoration - which requires three different firings - is given by the treatise composed by a potter from Kashan, Abu al-Qasim. Two copies of text dated 1301 AD and 1589 AD have survived, of which the translation in English has been published by J.W. Allan (Abu l-Qasim's Treatise on Ceramics, Iran, XI, 1973, pp.111-20). Although the mina'i technique was no longer used in when Abu al-Qasim wrote his treatise, he describes it precisely and calls it haft rang (seven colours).
The jar was constructed from moulded sections which were luted together and biscuit-fired in order to obtain a solid and definitive shape. According to the treatise, it was then 'coated with a glaze frit [...] and dried in the sun'. The interior of the jar is covered with transparent cobalt blue glaze (ladjvard) which was obtained by adding 'ten dirhams of sulaymani ladjvard' (which is probably cobalt as lapis-lazuli cannot be used as a glaze colorant). The exterior of the jar is covered with cream opaque tin glaze which would have been obtained by mixing bataneh (possibly gypsum or feldspar) to glaze frit and clay. At this moment the high fire cobalt-blue decoration is added. The vessel is then put in an earthenware case with a fitted lid placed in the kiln 'and fired for twelve hours with a hot even fire with this stipulation that no wood be put on until the smoking has stopped [...]. The vessels are removed from the kiln after a week'. The other colours are then prepared with 'red and yellow arsenic, gold, silver marcasite, yellow vitriol, roasted copper [which are] mixed to a paste'. The solution is 'ground on a stone for twenty-four hours [...] and dissolved in some grape juice or vinegar, [it is] painted onto the vessels as desired'. The second firing, at a lower temperature, lasts '72 hours with light smoke until they acquire the colour of two firings. When they are cold, take them out and rub them with damp earth so that the colour [...] comes out'. Abu al-Qasim concludes: 'that which has been evenly fired reflects like red gold and shines like the light of the sun'. The last step is the gilding. After the gold sheets have been prepared, they are 'cut carefully with scissors and stick with a pen onto the vessels with dissolved glue [and] smooth with cotton'. For a recent description of the mina'i technique, please see Anne-Marie Keblow Bernsted, Early Islamic Pottery, Materials & Techniques, London, 2003, p.44-50.
With its colourful figures painted in shades of blue, red, brown, pink and gold, the present jar reflects each step of this long and undoubtedly costly and luxury technique similar to lustre painted pottery. Mina'i appears to have been developed during the late 12th to the early 13th century. The ten recorded dated pieces of mina'i pottery gives a time period which extends from 1180 to 1219 AD, these dates being respectively borne by a bowl in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and a bowl in the Keir Collection and there is no reason to think that mina'i ware was produced much before or after these two dates (Oliver Watson, Documentary mina'i and Abu Zaid's bowls in Robert Hillenbrand (ed.), The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia, Costa Mesa, 1994, p.171). On his discussion of mina'i ware and enamel painting, Oliver Watson questions the origins of this elaborate technique for which 'the only predecessor [was] a certain class of late Roman glass that had been defunct for centuries' (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from the Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.363). Watson suggests that accomplished potters, such as Abu Zaid who signed two of the ten dated vessels mentioned above, may have moved from lustre painting to mina'i as the two techniques share technical similarities.
The moulded shoulder is decorated with two horsemen galloping to the left. The scene is commonly found on mina'i vessels; although each of the single figures of this jar is larger than most mina'i. However, a good comparable to our figures in terms of scale and composition is a bowl in the Al-Sabah collection with a horseman wearing a robe decorated in similar fashion with tiraz bands, the horse passing to the left with its tail knotted (Oliver Watson, op.cit., 2004, p.368, cat.p.3). The preparatory design visible on the bowl gives an interesting link between ceramic decoration and miniature paintings. The two horses painted on the jar, stamping the ground or galloping have an undeniable vivacity which is the work of an accomplished designer. In The Relationship between Book Painting and Luxury Ceramics in 13th century Iran, Robert Hillenbrand suggests that 'the [Seljuk] koine created by painters and designers can be most fully traced not directly in their own but indirectly in another medium - luxury ceramics' (Robert Hillenbrand, op.cit., pp.134-45).
This remarkably large surface allows the potter to display his composition - and talent - on a much larger scale than he usually could at disposition on more common vessels. Although close links between potters and court painters may be difficult to prove, there are strong resemblances which can be seen for instance in pages from the Varqa and Gulsha manuscript in the Topkapi palace depicting in a strip format two confronted horsemen, the dark and light coated horses in very similar attitudes to those on our jar and painted on a scroll ground (Robert Hillenbrand, op.cit., p.142, ill.130). As is the case in this jar, Hillenbrand notes that 'costume and background are treated with a precision which is alien to other contemporary Saljuq pottery and find its natural analogy in book painting' (op.cit., p.138). A good illustration of this analogy is the frontispiece of Kitab al-Aghani, copied in Mosul in 1219 and now in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, depicting Badr al-Din Lu'lu' on horseback as a large single figure, hunting with a falcon, and whose robe is precisely ornamented with intricate designs and tiraz bands as the two robes of our horsemen (David Alexander, Furusiyya, vol.II, p.129, cat.101).
A number of moulded vessels and tiles decorated with friezes of horsemen can be found in various collections. A 13th century cobalt blue glazed bottle with horsemen amid arabesques in the Metropolitan Museum, although of different shape, shows a similar decorative scheme, its large figural band being bordered by a band of inscription above and a foliate lattice below (David Alexander, op.cit., p.61, cat.55). Two tiles on turquoise ground mentioned by Gaston Wiet as being in the Collection of Mme Émile Paravicini and in the Kelekian Collection, are decorated in mina'i and shows comparable horsemen which although very fine, are typical of a more standardized production (Gaston Wiet, L'exposition persane de 1931, Cairo, 1933, pl.D, pl.XXIII, p.66). This somewhat standardized production of small vessels and tiles comes alongside that of more ambitious pieces.
There is however no direct comparable to this jar in mina'i pottery. The closest example is the so called Basilewsky vase, a monumental lustre painted jar in the Hermitage museum which is dated to the mid-13th century. Of slightly smaller size however (80cm. high), it is similarly moulded with a large band of polo players around the shoulder, bordered above and below by further figurative bands (Chevaux et cavaliers arabes dans les arts d'orient et d'occident, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2002, p.190-1, cat.162). Although magnificent, the covering lustre decoration with densely worked ground gives the vase a more confused aspect. The figural decoration on the minai jar benefits from the relatively bare body which is only decorated with a lattice of stars and crosses, simulating a wall panel above which the frieze would traditionally be placed. Another jar of comparable size, although smaller again (69cm. high), painted in lustre but not moulded was in the Hirsch Collection (Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, pl.61). The moulded turquoise glazed jar in the Metropolitan Museum, decorated with a frieze of felines above the shoulder, a kufic inscription and scrolls around the neck, and a decorative lattice covering the body below the shoulder offers a good comparable to our mina'i jar. Both monumental, the turquoise glazed being 80cm. high, they share the same decorative scheme but the technique of the New York piece, being monochrome, is far simpler (Arthur Lane, op.cit, pl.44).
A thermoluminescence test performed on 20 July 2010 by Oxford Authentification Ltd confirms the proposed dating for this lot (analysis certificate no.N110j90).
This jar is the most outstanding example of Seljuk ceramic with polychrome glaze painted decoration (mina'i). Its monumental size and its highly accomplished figural decoration display complete technical prowess. Although fragmentary, this unique piece is one of the best illustrations of the mastery reached by Iranian potters before the Mongol invasions. This jar must be considered as a masterpiece of Islamic ceramics.
The clue to the understanding of this very elaborate technique of decoration - which requires three different firings - is given by the treatise composed by a potter from Kashan, Abu al-Qasim. Two copies of text dated 1301 AD and 1589 AD have survived, of which the translation in English has been published by J.W. Allan (Abu l-Qasim's Treatise on Ceramics, Iran, XI, 1973, pp.111-20). Although the mina'i technique was no longer used in when Abu al-Qasim wrote his treatise, he describes it precisely and calls it haft rang (seven colours).
The jar was constructed from moulded sections which were luted together and biscuit-fired in order to obtain a solid and definitive shape. According to the treatise, it was then 'coated with a glaze frit [...] and dried in the sun'. The interior of the jar is covered with transparent cobalt blue glaze (ladjvard) which was obtained by adding 'ten dirhams of sulaymani ladjvard' (which is probably cobalt as lapis-lazuli cannot be used as a glaze colorant). The exterior of the jar is covered with cream opaque tin glaze which would have been obtained by mixing bataneh (possibly gypsum or feldspar) to glaze frit and clay. At this moment the high fire cobalt-blue decoration is added. The vessel is then put in an earthenware case with a fitted lid placed in the kiln 'and fired for twelve hours with a hot even fire with this stipulation that no wood be put on until the smoking has stopped [...]. The vessels are removed from the kiln after a week'. The other colours are then prepared with 'red and yellow arsenic, gold, silver marcasite, yellow vitriol, roasted copper [which are] mixed to a paste'. The solution is 'ground on a stone for twenty-four hours [...] and dissolved in some grape juice or vinegar, [it is] painted onto the vessels as desired'. The second firing, at a lower temperature, lasts '72 hours with light smoke until they acquire the colour of two firings. When they are cold, take them out and rub them with damp earth so that the colour [...] comes out'. Abu al-Qasim concludes: 'that which has been evenly fired reflects like red gold and shines like the light of the sun'. The last step is the gilding. After the gold sheets have been prepared, they are 'cut carefully with scissors and stick with a pen onto the vessels with dissolved glue [and] smooth with cotton'. For a recent description of the mina'i technique, please see Anne-Marie Keblow Bernsted, Early Islamic Pottery, Materials & Techniques, London, 2003, p.44-50.
With its colourful figures painted in shades of blue, red, brown, pink and gold, the present jar reflects each step of this long and undoubtedly costly and luxury technique similar to lustre painted pottery. Mina'i appears to have been developed during the late 12th to the early 13th century. The ten recorded dated pieces of mina'i pottery gives a time period which extends from 1180 to 1219 AD, these dates being respectively borne by a bowl in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and a bowl in the Keir Collection and there is no reason to think that mina'i ware was produced much before or after these two dates (Oliver Watson, Documentary mina'i and Abu Zaid's bowls in Robert Hillenbrand (ed.), The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia, Costa Mesa, 1994, p.171). On his discussion of mina'i ware and enamel painting, Oliver Watson questions the origins of this elaborate technique for which 'the only predecessor [was] a certain class of late Roman glass that had been defunct for centuries' (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from the Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.363). Watson suggests that accomplished potters, such as Abu Zaid who signed two of the ten dated vessels mentioned above, may have moved from lustre painting to mina'i as the two techniques share technical similarities.
The moulded shoulder is decorated with two horsemen galloping to the left. The scene is commonly found on mina'i vessels; although each of the single figures of this jar is larger than most mina'i. However, a good comparable to our figures in terms of scale and composition is a bowl in the Al-Sabah collection with a horseman wearing a robe decorated in similar fashion with tiraz bands, the horse passing to the left with its tail knotted (Oliver Watson, op.cit., 2004, p.368, cat.p.3). The preparatory design visible on the bowl gives an interesting link between ceramic decoration and miniature paintings. The two horses painted on the jar, stamping the ground or galloping have an undeniable vivacity which is the work of an accomplished designer. In The Relationship between Book Painting and Luxury Ceramics in 13th century Iran, Robert Hillenbrand suggests that 'the [Seljuk] koine created by painters and designers can be most fully traced not directly in their own but indirectly in another medium - luxury ceramics' (Robert Hillenbrand, op.cit., pp.134-45).
This remarkably large surface allows the potter to display his composition - and talent - on a much larger scale than he usually could at disposition on more common vessels. Although close links between potters and court painters may be difficult to prove, there are strong resemblances which can be seen for instance in pages from the Varqa and Gulsha manuscript in the Topkapi palace depicting in a strip format two confronted horsemen, the dark and light coated horses in very similar attitudes to those on our jar and painted on a scroll ground (Robert Hillenbrand, op.cit., p.142, ill.130). As is the case in this jar, Hillenbrand notes that 'costume and background are treated with a precision which is alien to other contemporary Saljuq pottery and find its natural analogy in book painting' (op.cit., p.138). A good illustration of this analogy is the frontispiece of Kitab al-Aghani, copied in Mosul in 1219 and now in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, depicting Badr al-Din Lu'lu' on horseback as a large single figure, hunting with a falcon, and whose robe is precisely ornamented with intricate designs and tiraz bands as the two robes of our horsemen (David Alexander, Furusiyya, vol.II, p.129, cat.101).
A number of moulded vessels and tiles decorated with friezes of horsemen can be found in various collections. A 13th century cobalt blue glazed bottle with horsemen amid arabesques in the Metropolitan Museum, although of different shape, shows a similar decorative scheme, its large figural band being bordered by a band of inscription above and a foliate lattice below (David Alexander, op.cit., p.61, cat.55). Two tiles on turquoise ground mentioned by Gaston Wiet as being in the Collection of Mme Émile Paravicini and in the Kelekian Collection, are decorated in mina'i and shows comparable horsemen which although very fine, are typical of a more standardized production (Gaston Wiet, L'exposition persane de 1931, Cairo, 1933, pl.D, pl.XXIII, p.66). This somewhat standardized production of small vessels and tiles comes alongside that of more ambitious pieces.
There is however no direct comparable to this jar in mina'i pottery. The closest example is the so called Basilewsky vase, a monumental lustre painted jar in the Hermitage museum which is dated to the mid-13th century. Of slightly smaller size however (80cm. high), it is similarly moulded with a large band of polo players around the shoulder, bordered above and below by further figurative bands (Chevaux et cavaliers arabes dans les arts d'orient et d'occident, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2002, p.190-1, cat.162). Although magnificent, the covering lustre decoration with densely worked ground gives the vase a more confused aspect. The figural decoration on the minai jar benefits from the relatively bare body which is only decorated with a lattice of stars and crosses, simulating a wall panel above which the frieze would traditionally be placed. Another jar of comparable size, although smaller again (69cm. high), painted in lustre but not moulded was in the Hirsch Collection (Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, pl.61). The moulded turquoise glazed jar in the Metropolitan Museum, decorated with a frieze of felines above the shoulder, a kufic inscription and scrolls around the neck, and a decorative lattice covering the body below the shoulder offers a good comparable to our mina'i jar. Both monumental, the turquoise glazed being 80cm. high, they share the same decorative scheme but the technique of the New York piece, being monochrome, is far simpler (Arthur Lane, op.cit, pl.44).
A thermoluminescence test performed on 20 July 2010 by Oxford Authentification Ltd confirms the proposed dating for this lot (analysis certificate no.N110j90).