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Artwork Details
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Title:Tile
Date:18th century
Geography:Attributed to Present-day Pakistan, Multan
Medium:Earthenware; molded decoration and glazed
Dimensions:H. 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm) W. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm) D. 2 in. (5.1 cm)
Classification:Ceramics-Tiles
Credit Line:Purchase, Friends of Islamic Art Gifts, 2007
Accession Number:2007.291
Two Tiles from Multan (nos. 2008.461 and 2007.291)
Together, these two works represent the continuing tradition of architectural tile production in the area of Multan, in present-day Pakistan. Although they were made over a span of centuries and incorporate different techniques, they both hew to a unified aesthetic that identifies them as having come from this particular area, where tiles glazed white, cobalt, and turquoise were once a common feature of architectural decoration. Tiles such as these would have been arranged in horizontal bands that alternated with bands of plain brick to create a striking visual effect, heightened by the undulating surfaces and varying shapes of the tiles. While the square tile (2008.461) may have belonged to an interior,[1] the larger, vertical tile (2007.291) may have been part of a frieze either at the base or along the top of an exterior wall, as seen in photographs of the Multani tombs of Yusuf Gardizi (twelfth century; date of revetment unknown) and Rukn-i ‘Alam (fourteenth century).[2]
The square tile (2008.461) here was crafted with a clever detail: the central cross is actually the unglazed clay body of the tile, which contrasts with the white slip that covers the rest of the flat surface.
The rectangular tile (2007.191), on the other hand, has molded decoration in the form of a cusped arch enclosing a smaller foliate motif. Ceramic tiles are relatively rare in architectural decoration in the Indian subcontinent, but the region of present-day Pakistan is known for consistently using them. This is partly because brick, which has a surface compatible with the application of tiles, was the most common building material there, as opposed to the ashlar masonry or stucco-covered rubble stone employed elsewhere on the subcontinent. Within Pakistan there were at least two distinctive regional traditions of tile making, one based in the area around Sind and the other near Multan. The one based in Multan seems to derive from Central Asian (rather than Iranian) traditions of tile decoration, both in the choice of colors and in the sparing use of tiles in combination with another material, such as brick.[4]
Marika Sardar in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]
Footnotes:
1. Tiles with the same design have been dispersed across many collections. Identical examples can be found in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (no. M.86.339.2–b) and in a private collection in California ( purchased at the same time as the LACMA tiles); in the Keir Collection; and in the David Collection, Copenhagen (see Folsach 2001, p. 197, no. 291). An additional tile was offered for sale in 2003 ( present whereabouts unknown; see Simon Ray, London, catalogue, April 4–May 17, 2002, pp. 46–47). In discussing the Keir Collection tile, Oliver Watson suggested that it came "from the tomb of a Sufi family dated c. 1480, twenty miles outside Multan" (Watson in Robinson, B[asil] W[illiam], ed. Islamic Art in the Keir Collection. Keir Collection, vol. 5. London,1988, p. 232, no. C91, pl. 52). Subsequent publications of this group of tiles all follow Watson’s attribution, although there does not seem to be any definitive documentation linking them to such a source. Other architectural elements said to have come from this building are a mihrab in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart (see Kalter, Johannes, and Margareta Pavaloi. Linden- Museum Stuttgart, Abteilungsführer IslamischerOrient. Stuttgart, 1987, p. 39), and a tile spandrel sold at Christie’s London (April 27, 2004, lot 150).
2. As suggested by the reconstruction of the mihrab in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; see note 1 above.
3. See Gaube, Heinz. "Das Mausoleum des Yusuf Gardizi in Multan." Oriens 34 (1994), pp. 345–46, although it should be noted that the tilework on the Yusuf Gardizi tomb has been repaired and/or changed in several historical and recent campaigns of restoration.
4. See illustrations in Degeorge, Gerard, and Yves Porter. The Art of the Islamic Tile. 2001. Paris, 2002, p. 131.
Private collection, New York (since the 1970s); [ Paul Anavian, until 2007; sold to MMA]
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. 241B, pp. 339, 345–46, ill. p. 345.
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