Tile

This image of a soaring phoenix with crested head and elaborate plumage, surrounded by swirling clouds, is a striking example of the adaptation of Chinese imagery by Persian artists.

With ancestry that included Genghis Khan and the Great Khans of China, the Mongol Ilkhanid rulers had strong ties with eastern Asia, facilitating the movement of people and goods across the continent. As a result, Persian art produced under Ilkhanid rule exhibits an infusion of new motifs — including depictions of the feng (phoenix) and long (dragon), both traditional Chinese symbols of imperial sovereignty.[1] The affinity between this new Persian iconography and that of contemporary Yuan China strongly suggests that Ilkhanid artists were aware of Chinese models.[2]

Excavation evidence indicates that this tile once graced the walls of a late thirteenth-century Ilkhanid palace known as Takht-i Sulaymän, located in a mountainous region southeast of Tabriz. Built on the shores of a small lake during the reign of Abaqa (d. 1282), the palace served as a seasonal camp, its location and elevation allowing the ruler and his court to escape the summer heat.[3] Many of its rooms were lavishly decorated with stuccowork and ceramic tiles in a rich variety of techniques, including the combination of cobalt and luster glazes seen on this molded tile.[4]

The appearance of motifs such as the dragon and phoenix within the context of this Ilkhanid royal palace may reflect a dual iconographic system. As traditional Chinese symbols of royalty, these images were well understood by the recently arrived Mongol Ilkhanid rulers and their court. At the same time, Persian artists began to adopt Chinese feng imagery as a way to visualize the Persian mythical bird known as the simurgh.[5] The possibility of two simultaneous readings for this tile’s iconography underscores the cosmopolitan and hybrid nature of the arts produced for the Ilkhanid court.[6]

Denise-Marie Teece in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. Masuya 1997; see pp. 564ff. for her discussion of these motifs and their associated meanings. Also see Masuya, Tomoko. "Ilkhanid Courtly Life." In Carboni and Komaroff 2002, pp. 74–103, esp. pp. 96–97.

2. Masuya 1997, p. 577, states "Characteristics shared by the feng motifs during the Yuan period and the phoenixes on the Takht-i Sulaymän tiles include the pair of long crests flowing from its forehead, a long comb under its beak, long hair-like feathers flowing from the neck, zigzag patterns in the body feathers, and long tail feathers." For more on the relationship between Persian and Chinese arts in this period, see Soucek, Priscilla [P]. "Ceramic Production as Exemplar of Yuan-Ilkhanid Relations." RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 35 [Intercultural China] (Spring 1999), pp. 125–41..

3. Masuya 2002, pp. 84ff. (reference in footnote 1)

4. Ibid., p. 96, and Masuya 1997, pp. 128–34, 577, 597, and 621. See ibid., pp. 514ff., for a description of tile type 6-2-2-b, findspots in the excavation, further references, and comparanda. Also see Masuya 2002, p. 89, for a plan of the palace complex. (reference in footnote 1)

5. See Masuya 1997, pp. 580–81. She states that as early as the 1290s the simurgh began to be depicted by Persian artists using the Chinese feng iconography.

6. As Masuya points out, however, it is unclear if the image of the feng would have been immediately recognized by the local population as representative of the simurgh. See ibid., p. 578. For another theory of how such imagery may have been perceived, see Melikian-Chirvani, A[ssadullah] S[ouren]. "Le Shahname: La Gnose soufie et le Pouvoir mongol." Journal asiatique 277, no. 3–4 (1984), pp. 249 – 337, especially his discussion of the simurgh motif at Takht-i Sulaiman beginning on p. 317. See also Melikian-Chirvani, A[ssadullah] S[ouren]. "Le livre des rois, miroir du destin." Studia Iranica 20, no. 1 (1991), pp. 33–148, pls. 1–16 esp. pp. 102ff.




Luster frieze tile with a phoenix

The main field of another type of molded frieze tile from Takht-i Sulaymän shows a dragon or a phoenix in relief in the Chinese style and set on a background of Chinese clouds. Although all the tiles with this motif excavated at the site are in the läjvardlnah technique, luster versions apparently made from the same molds are known from various collections. This tile is an important testimony to the transmission of Chinese motifs, including the dragon and phoenix of imperial symbolism, during the early Ilkhanid period in Persia. It is known that the Mongols brought Chinese craftsmen to their court in Persia; however, since the technique used here is totally Persian, it is likely that Persian craftsmen produced this tile in imitation of Chinese models.



[Carboni and Masuya 1993]

[ Indjoudjian Frères, Paris, until 1912; sold to MMA]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery. "Persian Tiles," May 4, 1993–January 2, 1994, no. 19.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," October 28, 2002–February 16, 2003, no. 99.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," April 13–July 27, 2003, no. 99.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rumi and the Sufi Tradition," October 23, 2007–February 3, 2008, no catalogue.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammedan Decorative Arts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1930. p. 135, ill. fig. 69 (b/w).

Pope, Arthur Upham. An Introduction to Persian Art Since the Seventh Century A.D.. London: Peeter Davies, Ltd. by the Shenval Press, 1930. p. 79, ill. fig. 31 (b/w).

Dimand, Maurice S. "A Picture Book." In Islamic Pottery of the Near East. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1936. fig. 13.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 201, ill. fig. 132 (b/w).

Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica vol. 5 (1992). p. 320, ill. pl. XXIX (b/w).

Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 19, p. 24, ill. front cover (color), fig. 19 (b/w).

Babaie, Sussan, ed. "The Idea of Iran." In Iran After the Mongols. Vol. VIII. London: I. B. Tauris, 2019. p. 98, ill. fig. 5.4 (b/w).

Masuya, Tomoko. "The Ilkhanid Phase of Takht-I Sulaiman." Master's thesis, UMI Dissertation Services, 1997.

Rossabi, Morris, Charles Melville, James C. Y. Watt, Tomoko Masuya, Sheila Blair, Robert Hillenbrand, Linda Komaroff, Stefano Carboni, Sarah Bertelan, and John Hirx. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353, edited by Stefano Carboni, and Linda Komaroff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. no. 99, pp. 74–75, 95, 265, ill. fig. 97 (color), detail fig. 79 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 78, pp. 89, 121, ill. p. 121 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, and Claire Moore, ed. "A Resource for Educators." In Art of the Islamic World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 214–15, ill. pl. 43 (color).

Flood, Finbarr Barry, and Gulru Necipoglu. "From the Mongols to Modernism." In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. vol. 2. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. pp. 641–42, ill. fig. 25.3 (b/w).