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Collections

Bowlearly 13th century

Not on view
Ceramic bowl seen from above, cream glaze with golden lustre medallion depicting two facing birds amid scrollwork, encircled by an Arabic script inscription on a copper-brown rim band
Ceramic bowl with flared walls and low foot ring, covered in a lustrous brown glaze with white slip decoration; a band of Arabic-script inscription rings the interior rim, and radiating leaf or blade forms encircle the exterior.
Ceramic bowl with crackled white glaze and lustre decoration; central medallion depicts two confronted birds amid scrolling arabesques in golden-brown; wide rim band bears cursive Arabic script in white slip on brown ground.
Title
Bowl
Place Made
Iran, Kashan
Date Made
early 13th century
Medium
Fritware, overglaze luster-painted
Dimensions
2 3/4 x 6 1/2 in. (6.99 x 16.51 cm)
Credit Line
The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky
Accession Number
M.73.5.214
Classification
Ceramics
Collecting Area
Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes

Birds are a common motif in Islamic art and appear in numerous mediums, including ceramics, textiles, carved wood, and metalwork. Two delicately painted birds, arranged face-to-face, decorate the center of this stunning gold luster bowl made in thirteenth-century Iran, probably for an affluent urban client. It is unclear what species of bird was intended, but it is possibly a nightingale, popularly known in Persian literature for its unrequited love for the rose and easily recognizable to the literate Iranian urbanite.

The inscription around the edge reads, "Perpetual glory and increasing prosperity and triumphant victory and lasting victory and rising good fortune and healthy life and pious living and...wealth and health and long life to its owner."

Selected Bibliography

  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.