Bowllate 15th century

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Engraved copper alloy bowl with globular form, covered in horizontal bands of Arabic calligraphy in cartouches and dense scrolling floral decoration, with blue-green patina

Close-up of a ceramic vessel's curved surface with densely incised decoration in warm amber and dark brown tones; a central medallion with a pinecone or pomegranate motif surrounded by scrolling vines, foliage, and stylized flowers filling the entire field with crosshatched ground patterns.

Title: Bowl
Place Made: Afghanistan, Herat
Date Made: late 15th century
Period: Timurid (1370-1506)
Medium: Copper, engraved and originally tinned
Dimensions: Diameter: 10 9/16 in. (26.83 cm); Height: 5 3/4 in. (14.61 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky
Accession Number: AC1996.38.1
Classification: Metal
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes: In Islamic lands, inscriptions on works of art often serve a dual function: to inform and to decorate. These texts sometimes provide important historical information such as the date the object was made, the name of its maker, or the name of its owner. A frequently overlooked category of text that may also add to our understanding of the object is poetry, especially among works from the Persianate world. For example, the Persian poem inscribed on this deluxe tinned copper bowl may be posited as a first-hand account in the making of such objects from fifteenth-century Herat, in modern Afghanistan, once the great capital and artistic center of the Timurid dynasty (1370−1507).

The verses, which seem to have been written expressly for this and related bowls, inform us that it is a wine vessel—likely not for drinking from but for transferring the beverage to smaller and probably similarly decorated cups. They also suggest that the bowl’s highly nuanced and elaborate floral decoration was mediated through drawn designs, a specific practice well known in Timurid arts of the book. Speaking in the voice of the artist, the poem provides this tantalizing revelation: “I drew and made a thousand designs for the sake of the bowl.”
Selected Bibliography: Komaroff, Linda. "The Timurid Phase in Iranian Metal-Work: Formulation and Realization of a Style." Ph.D. thesis, New York University, 1984.
Komaroff, Linda. 2007. "A thousand designs for the sake of the bowl": a wine vessel with Persian inscriptions at LACMA. Artibus Asiae 67(1): 25-38.
Komaroff, Linda. Collecting Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: A Curatorial Perspective. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues; LACMA, 2017.
Komaroff, Linda. "Islamic Art Now and Then." In Islamic Art: Past, Present, Future, edited by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, 26-56. New Haven, New York, and London: Yale University Press, 2019.
Blondet, José Luis. Six Scripts for Not I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE-2020 CE). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020.

Related Unframed

Bowllate 15th century

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Title: Bowl
Place Made: Afghanistan, Herat
Date Made: late 15th century
Period: Timurid (1370-1506)
Medium: Copper, engraved and originally tinned
Dimensions: Diameter: 10 9/16 in. (26.83 cm); Height: 5 3/4 in. (14.61 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky
Accession Number: AC1996.38.1
Classification: Metal
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes: In Islamic lands, inscriptions on works of art often serve a dual function: to inform and to decorate. These texts sometimes provide important historical information such as the date the object was made, the name of its maker, or the name of its owner. A frequently overlooked category of text that may also add to our understanding of the object is poetry, especially among works from the Persianate world. For example, the Persian poem inscribed on this deluxe tinned copper bowl may be posited as a first-hand account in the making of such objects from fifteenth-century Herat, in modern Afghanistan, once the great capital and artistic center of the Timurid dynasty (1370−1507).

The verses, which seem to have been written expressly for this and related bowls, inform us that it is a wine vessel—likely not for drinking from but for transferring the beverage to smaller and probably similarly decorated cups. They also suggest that the bowl’s highly nuanced and elaborate floral decoration was mediated through drawn designs, a specific practice well known in Timurid arts of the book. Speaking in the voice of the artist, the poem provides this tantalizing revelation: “I drew and made a thousand designs for the sake of the bowl.”
Selected Bibliography: Komaroff, Linda. "The Timurid Phase in Iranian Metal-Work: Formulation and Realization of a Style." Ph.D. thesis, New York University, 1984.
Komaroff, Linda. 2007. "A thousand designs for the sake of the bowl": a wine vessel with Persian inscriptions at LACMA. Artibus Asiae 67(1): 25-38.
Komaroff, Linda. Collecting Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: A Curatorial Perspective. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues; LACMA, 2017.
Komaroff, Linda. "Islamic Art Now and Then." In Islamic Art: Past, Present, Future, edited by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, 26-56. New Haven, New York, and London: Yale University Press, 2019.
Blondet, José Luis. Six Scripts for Not I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE-2020 CE). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020.