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Tile with Image of Phoenix

late 13th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 455
After the Mongol conquest of Persia in the thirteenth century, an extensive trade network opened from China to the Mediterranean, allowing goods to move more freely than in prior centuries. As the objects in this case demonstrate, Ilkhanid period artists readily adopted imagery from Chinese iconography, including lotus flowers, deer, dragons and other mythical creatures. This image of a soaring phoenix with crested head and elaborate trailing plumage exemplifies the adaptation of Chinese imagery by Persian artists.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tile with Image of Phoenix
  • Date: late 13th century
  • Geography: From Iran, probably Takht-i Sulaymän
  • Medium: Stonepaste; modeled, underglaze painted in blue and turquoise, luster-painted on opaque white ground
  • Dimensions: H. 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm)
    W. 14 1/4 inl (36.2 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics-Tiles
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1912
  • Object Number: 12.49.4
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

Audio

Cover Image for 6709. Tile with Image of Phoenix, Part 1

6709. Tile with Image of Phoenix, Part 1

0:00
0:00

DENISE-MARIE TEECE: My name is Denise-Marie Teece. And I'm a Research Associate in the Department of Islamic Art. And I'm here with my colleague Maryam Ekhtia. And we're talking today about this beautiful phoenix tile.

MARYAM EKHTIAR: This phoenix tile is a wonderful piece from an Ilkhanid Palace,14th Century. It's got a molded design… And it shows this mythical bird, soaring to the skies. It's got very lively feathers and long plumage.

DENISE-MARIE TEECE: So this tile is really a striking example of the adoption of Chinese imagery by Persian artists in the 14th Century. And how this happened was that, during the 14th Century, in the Ilkhanid period, there was a vast trading network that opened up between China and Iran.

MARYAM EKHTIAR: The phoenix is actually a Chinese motif. However, the Persian potters and painters take it and transform it into a bird that is thoroughly Persian. …It's a bigger-than-life bird living in the mountains. And in the Shahnameh, the Book of Kings, the phoenix figures very prominently.

DENISE-MARIE TEECE: From excavations, we know that these kinds of tiles were used in the Ilkhanid Palace, the Summer Palace known as Takht-i Sulayman. So within these palaces, tiles like this with the phoenix would have alternated with similar tiles, but with dragon motifs. So both of these are being taken from Chinese iconography.

NARRATOR: To hear about Chinese and Islamic connections along The Silk Road, press PLAY.

    Listen to more about this artwork

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Pierced Jug with Harpies and Sphinxes, Stonepaste; openwork, underglaze-painted, glazed in transparent turquoise
Pierced Jug with Harpies and Sphinxes
dated 612 AH/1215–16 CE
Luster Bowl with Winged Horse, Stonepaste; luster-painted on opaque monochrome glaze
Luster Bowl with Winged Horse
late 12th century
Turquoise Bowl with Lute Player and Audience, Stonepaste; glazed (opaque monochrome), in-glaze- and overglaze-painted, gilded
Turquoise Bowl with Lute Player and Audience
late 12th–early 13th century
Mihrab (Prayer Niche), Mosaic of polychrome-glazed cut tiles on stonepaste body; set into mortar
Mihrab (Prayer Niche)
dated 755 AH/1354–55 CE
Tile from a Frieze, Stonepaste; inglaze painted in blue and turquoise, luster-painted on opaque white glaze, modeled
Tile from a Frieze
early 14th century

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