This ewer demonstrates a continuation of Parthian and Sasanian forms during the early Islamic period in Iran. The lobed forms represent mountains and the vertical lines surmounted by budlike shapes are probably plants. Its overall composition and motifs demonstrate the transition from a figural style to a growing taste for rhythmic repeating patterns. The handle is shaped like an elongated cat peering at the heads of two birds depicted on the rim of the vessel, as though about to pounce.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Ewer with a Feline-Shaped Handle
Date:7th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Bronze; cast, chased, and inlaid with copper
Dimensions:Max. H. 19 1/8 in. (48.5 cm) Max. Diam. 8 1/4 in. (21.1 cm)
Classification:Metal
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1947
Object Number:47.100.90
Ewer
With its elegant profile and imposing size, this ewer stands out among the metal vessels produced during the early period of Islam. The ovoid body has a cylindrical neck and rests on a ring-shaped molding atop a domical base. Two heads of ducks in profile encircle the lip of the vessel. Its handle is shaped as a sinuous panther whose front paws rest on the rim, while the animal’s body and legs extend down the side of the ewer. The smooth surface of the neck and handle contrasts with the undulating surface of the body, which is covered with rows of stylized lobed and bud forms originally inlaid with copper. Lotus petals surround the base of the body, and the same motif is repeated on the foot, arranged in two overlapping bands.
The elongated ovoid shape of this ewer is seen frequently in the metalwork production of Sasanian Iran from the third to the seventh century. This form was especially popular in the silverwork production of the later Sasanian period, in which it appears combined with smaller bases and narrower necks often terminating in spouted rims.[1] The ewer’s decoration, which has been interpreted as a stylized mountainous landscape, has also been connected with Sasanian production.[2] Mountains and plants, sometimes visible at the bases of the vessels but more often arranged in overlapping bands covering most of the objects’ surfaces, appear in more naturalistic fashion on a number of late Sasanian ewers and plates, often accompanied by animals and hunters.[3]
In the early centuries of the caliphate, the continuation of pre- Islamic forms was common in the production of metalware, particularly in the eastern part of the Islamic world where a solid tradition of metalwork had been in place for centuries. Along with specific types of vessels, a wide range of vegetal and zoomorphic motifs continued to be employed in the decades following the Islamic conquest. This continuity has complicated the dating of objects produced in the phase of transition from the Sasanian Empire to the Islamic caliphate. The present ewer, for example, was long considered to be one of the last masterpieces of Sasanian metalwork production. At the same time, its monumental proportions, larger foot, and more bulbous profile, along with the stylized nature of its decoration—whose rhythm and repetitive quality foreshadow two distinctive traits of Islamic ornamentation—create an aesthetic that departs from previous tradition. Thus it likely belongs to the transitional phase of metalwork production in Iran during the first decades of Islam, when forms and motifs inherited from preexisting traditions were adopted and refashioned to respond to a new sensibility.
Francesca Leoni in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]
Footnotes:
1. Ann Arbor 1967, pp. 105–6, nos. 18–19; New York 1978, pp. 60–61, no. 18.
2. New York 1978, p. 66.
3. I bid., p. 33, no. 3; p. 39, no. 6; pp. 58–59, no. 17; pp. 65–67, no. 22; Ann Arbor 1967, p. 111, no. 24.
Alledgedly found in Stépan-Zminda, Kazbek, Georgia, by Friedrich Bayern (ca. 1880); Alledgedly, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, Russia; Prince Orloff, Russia (probably by 1912); [ Demotte, Inc., New York]; Mitchell Kennerley, New York (until 1938; to Brummer); [ Brummer Gallery, New York, 1938–47; sold to MMA]
Iranian Institute. "Exhibition of Persian Art," 1940, Gal. XI, no. 35.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origin and Influence - Cultural Contacts: Egypt, the Ancient Near East and the Classical World," December 18, 1970–April 23, 1971, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rumi and the Sufi Tradition," October 23, 2007–February 3, 2008, no catalogue.
Mourier, J. L'Art au Caucase. Brussels, 1912. Ch. 2, p. 20, ill. pl. 1 (b/w drawing).
Pope, Arthur Upham. Masterpieces of Persian Art. New York, 1945. p. 59, ill. pl. 39 (b/w).
Harari, Ralph, and Richard Ettinghausen. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, edited by Arthur Upham Pope. vol. I–VI. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. vol. III, p. 2703, ill. fig. 910.
Ackerman, Phyllis. "The Iranian Institute, New York." In Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art. 2nd. ed. New York: Iranian Institute, 1940. Gallery XI, no. 35, p. 321.
Ettinghausen, Richard, Hugo Buchthal, Otto Kurz, Marvin Chauncey Ross, Basil Gray, George C. Miles, Nabih A. Faris, and Carl Johan Lamm. "in: Ars Islamica." Six Thousand Years of Persian Art; The Exhibition of Iranian Art, New York, 1940, part 2, vol. VII (1940). p. 115, ill. pls. 17, 19.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Review of the year 1947." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 7, no. 1 (Summer 1948). pp. 14–15.
Dimand, Maurice S. "Recent Additions to the Near Eastern Collections." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 7 (Jan. 1949). p. 136, ill. p. 137.
Dimand, Maurice S. "Akten des XXIV internationalen Orientalisten-Kongress: München, 28 August–4 September 1957." In Some Early Islamic Bronzes from Iran in American Collections. Weisbaden, 1959. pp. 346–49.
Harper, Prudence Oliver. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. New York, 1978. nos. 3, 6, 17, 18, 22, pp. 33, 39, 58–59, 60–61, 65–67.
University of Michigan Museum of Art. "Late Antique and Early Mediaeval Arts of Luxury from Iran." In Sasanian Silver. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1967. no. 57, p. 138, ill. (b/w).
"An Offering of Treasures Celebrating the tenth Anniversary of ASIA HOUSE GALERY." In Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections II. New York: Asia House Gallery, 1970. no. 4, pp. 28–29, ill. (b/w).
"February 1–April 23, 1971." In Origin and Influence, Cultural Contacts: Egypt, the Ancient Near East and the Classical World. vol. 29, no. 7. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970. p. 325, ill. (b/w).
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts & the Islamic World, Arts & The Islamic World, vol. 3, no. 3 (Autumn 1985). p. 54, ill. figs. 7–8.
Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 14–15, ill. fig. 2 (color).
de Montebello, Philippe, and Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 6th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. p. 312, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).
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. 5, p. 29, ill. (color).
Canby, Sheila R. "The Islamic Galleries at The Met." Arts of Asia, Arts of Asia, vol. 42 (September/October 2012). p. 83, ill. fig. 5 (color).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 125, ill. (color).
Dunn-Vaturi, Anne-Elizabeth, and Martina Rugiadi. "in: The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York. Edited by Biro, Brennan and Force." In The Brummer Gallery and the Making of Iranian and Islamic Art, edited by Yaëlle Biro, Christine Brennan, and Christel Hollevoet-Force. Brill, 2023. p. 447.
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