- Title
- Ewer
- Date Made
- late 12th century - early 13th century
- Medium
- Fritware, inglaze- and overglaze-painted (mina'i)
- Dimensions
- 13 × 11 1/2 in. (33.02 × 29.21 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2002.1.7
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
During the second half of the twelfth century, a new type of luxury ceramic was introduced in Iran, which modern scholars refer to as mina'i (from the Persian word for enamel). The polychrome surfaces of these wares—notable for their lively, colorful figural decoration—were produced through a costly and complicated double firing process similar to the luster painting technique, and in fact both types of wares are attributable to Kashan, where they may have been made by some of the same potters, in the same workshops. Unlike luster, mina'i ware was not produced after the thirteenth century, although it remains one of the best-known and most attractive types of medieval Iranian ceramics, as, for example, this large, elegant ewer.
- Selected Bibliography
- Komaroff, Linda, editor. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2023.
- Hirx, John. "Ceramic Decals on Mina'i Wares." In Iranian Art from the Sasanians to the Islamic Republic: Essays in Honour of Linda Komaroff, edited by Sheila S. Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom and Sandra S. Williams. Edinburgh University Press, 2024.
