Bowl

Bowl

This bowl has the same shape as MMA no. 68.215.10 (catalogue number 13 in this volume), although its dimensions are slightly smaller. The luster paint has faded in some areas but the overall decoration is still visible. The interior surface of the bowl, divided into concentric circles, contains human figures drawn in reserve and animals. The areas representing the robes of the figures are decorated with spiral patterns, while those corresponding to the coats of the animals are filled with tiny dots and larger spots. The background decoration, also in reserve, consists of vegetal patterns, scrolls, and half-palmettes. In the inner circle on the bottom of the bowl are two haloed figures without specific attributes, probably engaged in conversation. On the narrow band surrounding this inner circle are verses of poetry in Arabic in a hurried naskh script. A larger band occupies almost half of the height of the wall of the bowl and includes simple vertical patterns consisting of half-palmettes and vegetal designs; pseudo-kufic writing, with repeated vertical hastae in superimposed blue pigment, makes the luster design underneath more difficult to read. The last decorative band, on the wall of the bowl, extending up to the rim, is occupied by twelve medallions that depict the signs of the Zodiac, clockwise. Additional bands of pseudo-cursive script and geometric decorations were painted on the exterior wall of the bowl in luster and touches of blue pigment.

The iconography is fairly traditional, but the Planetary Lords were left out and all the signs are represented in isolation. This seems to be typical of illustrations of the Zodiac on luster pottery, where "scientific" elements became less important and the figures were not drawn as carefully and meaningfully as on inlaid metalwork objects. The zodiacal cycles pictured on a small number of luster-painted ceramic vessels (for example, on two large plates, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the other in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;[1] show similar inaccurate iconographical details. Thus, Aries, Taurus, and Capricorn are portrayed as quadrupeds without their riders (Mars, Venus, and Saturn, respectively); Virgo, Libra, and Aquarius are barely recognizable, respectively, as Mercury slashing ears of corn, Venus between the two pans of a scale, and Saturn drawing water from a well; and Sagittarius, the centaur, has lost both his bow and his dragon-headed tail.

The representation of the signs of the Zodiac on luster-painted pottery seems, generally, to be rather conventional and devoid of specific astrological and horoscopic meanings. Therefore, the main reason for its adoption must have been its decorative appeal within the Islamic figurative tradition, which was so admired by luster painters in the twelfth and the thirteenth century.

[Carboni 1997]

Footnotes:

1. see Survey of Persian Art, 6 vols., Oxford, 1939, figures 712–713.

Sir George Donaldson, London; M. Eynard, Lyon; Alphonse Kann, Paris (until 1927; his sale, American Art Association,New York, January 6–8, 1927, lot 224, to MMA)

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art," February 4–August 31, 1997, no. 18.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Decorated Word : Writing and Picturing in Islamic Calligrahy," April 8–November 3, 2019.

"January 6–8, 1927." In The Alphonse Kann Collection. New York: American Art Association, 1927. no. 224.

Carboni, Stefano. Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 18, pp. 42–43, ill. (b/w).

Casagrande-Kim, Roberta, ed. "Islamic Transformations of the Classical Past." In Romance and Reason. Princeton and Oxford: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, 2018. no. 65, p. 138, ill.