Ilkhanid-period potters in Iran imitated the range of green glazes of imported Chinese celadon wares, though they did not always succeed in duplicating their colors. This bowl is one of the more accomplished attempts. Its color, shape and decoration of three playful fish relate closely to wares produced in the kilns of Longquan, China during the Song period (960–1279).
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Title:Bowl with Fish Motifs
Date:first half 14th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Stonepaste; molded and glazed
Dimensions:H. 5 in. (12.7 cm) Diam. 1 1/4 in. (28.6 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Mrs. Horace Havemeyer, in memory of her husband, Horace Havemeyer, 1959
Accession Number:59.60
Bowl with Three Fishes
One of the clearst examples of direct Chinese influence on the Islamic arts of the Ilkhanid period is a virtually straightforward imitation of celadon wares produced from the Song period (960–1279) through the Yuan. The typical green glaze, a color otherwise seldom employed by Iranian potters, was imitated with varying degrees of success, the present bowl being one of the more outstanding.[1] In a dynamic composition three fish with curved bodies are shown swimming in a circle, their heads pointing to the center of the bowl as if they were about to be swallowed up by the vortex in the middle. A parallel in shape and decoration among Chinese models is a bowl in the Metopolitan Museum with two fish in applied relief on the inside, which was created in the kilns of Lung Ch'uan in the Song period.[2] The fish, an almost universal symbol of good omen, was used as a decorative motif on drinking vessels and water containers in Western Asia before the advent of the Ilkhanids and became especially popular on Syrian gilded and enameled glass of the thirteenth century.[3]
[Komaroff and Carboni 2002]
Footnotes:
1. Jenkins [Madina], Marilyn. "Islamic Pottery: A Brief History." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 40, no. 4 (Spring 1983), pp. 28–29, no. 31; The Islamic World. Introduction by Stuart Cary Welch. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 74–75, no. 54. Another example of Iranian "celadon" is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; see Lane, Arthur. Later Islamic Pottery: Persia, Syria, Egypt, Turkey. Faber Monographs on Pottery and Porcelain. London: Faber and Faber, 1957, pl. 86.
2. Acc. no. 34.113.8
3. See e.g. L'Orient de Saladin: L'Art des Ayyoubides. Exhib. cat. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe and Gallimard, 2001, pp. 189, 192, nos. 198, 205.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, New York (until 1959; gifted to MMA by Mrs. Horace Havemeyer))
Asia Society. "Iranian Ceramics," May 3, 1963–September 12, 1963, no. 75.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, pl. 101.
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. 132.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353," April 13, 2003–July 27, 2003.
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. 132.
Leidy, Denise Patry. "Longquan: A Selection from the Metropolitan Museum of Arts." Arts of Asia vol. 45, no. 2 (March–April 2015). p. 125, ill. fig. 18.
Wilkinson, Charles K. Iranian Ceramics. New York: Asia House Gallery, 1963. no. 75, pp. 9, 135, ill. pl. 75 (b/w).
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, Suzanne G. Valenstein, and Julia Meech-Pekarik. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. vol. 12. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1977. no. 90, pp. 271, 314, ill. pl. 90 (color), p. 271 (profile in b/w).
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Pottery: A Brief History." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. 40, no. 4 (Spring 1983). no. 31, pp. 28–29, ill. pl. 31 (color).
Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. no. 54, pp. 74–75, ill. (color).
Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica vol. 5 (1992). p. 321, ill. pl. XXXIII (b/w).
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. p. 111, ill. pl. 101 (color).
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. 132, pp. 200, 271, ill. fig. 238 (color).
Alzahraa K. Ahmed and other curators raise awareness about cross-cultural connections in a series of informal gallery talks on artifacts from the Arab lands and ancient Near East.
Senior Research Assistant Courtney A. Stewart takes a look at Islamic and Chinese ceramics in The Met collection and highlights key similarities in their style and production.
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