Bowl, Mina'i ("enameled") ware

This is a small, fine-bodied footed bowl depicting a pair of confronted horsemen flanking a highly stylized tree among whose upper “branches” are perched two birds, facing outward. A blue band with Kufic inscription, in Arabic, outlined in black and reserved in white, surrounds the central composition, and repeats the word الحق (the Truth). On the exterior, the decoration is restricted to a naskhi inscription that perhaps repeats the word العز (the Glory). The theme of opposing horsemen on either side of a tree is fairly common in mina’i ware and seems more decorative than narrative.(1) The composition likely held symbolic value as part of the princely cycle, perhaps connoting the “good life.”(2) It is difficult to judge the quality of the original painting because the bowl is heavily restored. The overpainted areas include the pair of birds, the face of the rider at right, and most of his companion on the left.(3) There is, however, nothing to indicate that the composition itself has been altered.

Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 358-359.

NOTES:
1. See for example, Ceramics from the World of Islam. Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1973. Catalogue by Esin Atil. Washington, D.C., 1973, no. 38; Allan, James W. Islamic Ceramics. Ashmolean Museum. Oxford, 1991, no. 14.
2. The suggestion that the horsemen represent the conquering knight who defeats the forces of evil seems highly improbable, in part because the riders are quite specifically unarmed; see Grube, Ernst J. Islamic Pottery of the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection. London, 1976, p. 206. Perhaps more plausible is the proposal that the paired horsemen flanking a tree demonstrate an abbreviated version of the hunt theme as part of the princely cycle; see Shepherd, Dorothy G. “Saljūq Textiles: A Study in Iconography.” In The Art of the Saljūqs in Iran and Anatolia: Proceedings of a Symposium in Edinburgh in 1982, edited by Robert Hillenbrand, pp. 210 – 17. Islamic Art and Architecture 4. Costa Mesa, Calif., 1994, p. 210.
3. The vessel was X-rayed and examined under ultraviolet light in the Objects Conservation department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in April 1986.

George Pratt; Pratt sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 15-16 January 1937, lot 77, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the Pratt sale.

Yves Porter. "Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World." Under the Adorned Dome : Four Essays in the Arts of Iran and India. vol. 19, Leiden ; Boston, 2023, p. 94, ill. fig. 2.47.