Large Jar

Jar with Molded Decoration


Even if this handsome jar did not carry an inscription dating it, its decoration clearly belongs to the period of Mongol rule in Iran, while the Persian verse that it carries seems to suit the uncertainty of the times as well.[1] The vessel is circumscribed by a large central register filled with a dense, lush landscape inhabited by antelope, rabbits, and other animals; on the neck is a narrow band of geese or swans in flight amid tall, leafy plants. While decorative bands of animals predate the Ilkhanid period in Iran, the greater naturalism with which the animals move and the detailed landscape settings are new. Closely related bands of animals are used as subsidiary decoration on frieze tiles from Takht-i Sulaiman (e.g.MMA 10.9.1) and on silk tapestries ascribed to Central Asia.[2] The motif of birds in flight among foliage is also found on earlier Chinese silk tapestries and silk and gold brocades.[3] Imported textiles perhaps served to introduce these motifs to Ilkhanid Iran. The band of paneling around the base of the jar can be related to the lotus-petal molding common on certain Chinese wares, including celadons.[4]

The inscription on the shoulder of the vessel reads in translation: "Tumultuous air and boiling earth. / Joyous is he whose heart is happy. Drink!"[5]

[Komaroff and Carboni 2002]

Footnotes:

1. Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "The Forgotten Legacy: The Havemeyers' Collection of Decorative Arts." In Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exhib. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 99–113; Jenkins [Madina], Marilyn. "Collecting the 'Orient' at the Met: Early Tastemakers in America." Ars Orientalis 30 (2000), p. 85, fig. 17. Special issue, Exhibiting the Middle East: Collections and Perceptions of Islamic Art, edited by Linda Komaroff.

2. For the silk tapestries, see Watt, James C.Y. and Anne E. Wardwell. When Silk was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles. Exhib. cat. The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, pp. 66–68, 80–82, nos. 14, 19.

3. Ibid., pp. 82–84 and pp. 112–13 respectively.

4. See Allan, James W. Islamic Ceramics. Ashmolean-Christie's Handbooks. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1991, pp. 34–35. For a similarly decorated cobalt blue jar, dated 683/1284–85 (Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C.) see Atil, Esin. Ceramics from the World of islam. Exhib. cat. Freer Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981, pp. 168–69, no. 77, where it is suggeted that the two jars came from the same workshop. Certain large, mold-made celadons of the Yuan dynasty, datable to the fourteenth century, incorporate similar designs such as a bird flying amid dense foliage, representing the shared decorative vocabulary of the Mongol era: see e.g. Medley, Margaret. Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware. New York: Pitman, 1974, p. 75, fig. 69.

5. The date, 681, is given in cipher. We are grateful to Mina Eghbal for her help with this translation, which differs significantly from that in Frelinghuysen 1993.

Inscription: On shoulder in Persian in naskhi script: "The heavens and earth are in turmoil; how lucky are those who drink and forget". A.H. 681 (A.D. 1282–83)
(Translated by Mr. Esfahani 1980)

One line poem from Firdowsi, the story بازگشتن اسفندیار نزد گشتاسپ "Bazgashtani Isfandiyar nazd-i gushtasip”
(Abdullah Ghouchani 2015)

هوا پر خروش و زمین پر ز چوش/ خنک آنک دل شاد دارد بنوش681
(A.D 1282-83)
The air resoundeth and earth travaileth, And blest is he whose heart drink gladeneth.
The story (15) "How Asfandiyar returned to Gushtasp".

Marking: - Sticker on base: International / Exhibition / of Persian Art / London 1931 / I.S.389
- Sticker on base: 105

[ Dikran G. Kelekian (American, born Turkey), New York; sold to Havemeyer]; H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Horace Havemeyer, New York (by 1909–d. 56; bequeathed to MMA)

Cairo. Musée Arabe Du Caire. "L'Exposition Persane de 1931," 1931, no. 42.

London. Burlington House. "International Exhibition of Persian Art," January 7, 1931–February 28, 1931, no. 105.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931, no. 91.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. 99.

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. 129.

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. 129.

Kelekian, Dikran G. "Being a Brief History of the Art of Ceramics in the Near East." In The Potteries of Persia. Paris: H. Clark, 1909. pp. 21, 25, 26, ill. fig. 17 (b/w).

Riviere, Henri, and Gaston Migeon. La Céramique dans L'art Musulman. Vol. 2 vols.. Paris, 1913. p. 67, ill.

Dimand, Maurice S. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 12–June 28, 1931." In Ceramic Art of the Near East. New York, 1931. no. 91, p. 22, ill. (b/w).

Wilson, Arnold T. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art. 3rd. ed. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1931. no. 115, p. 67.

"7th January to 28th February, 1931." In Persian Art : An Illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Persian Art at Burlington House London, 1931. 2nd ed. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1931. no. 105, p. 55, ill.

Wiet, Gaston. L'Exposition Persane de 1931, Cairo. Cairo, 1933. no. 42, pp. 41–42, ill. pl. XXIV (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. II, no. 155, vol. II, pp. 1622–23, ill. vol. V, pl. 759.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 197.

Dimand, Maurice S. "The Horace Havemeyer Bequest of Islamic Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol.15 (May 1957). p. 208, 211, ill. p. 211 (b/w).

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 3rd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1958. p. 372, ill. fig. 240.

Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 99, pp. 108–9, ill. pl. 99 (color).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Collecting the "Orient" at the Met: Early Tastemakers in America." Ars Orientalis vol. 30 (2000). p. 85, ill. fig. 17 (b/w).

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. 129, pp. 180, 271, ill. fig. 212 (color).