Bowl

Deep bowl on low ring foot with five-branched arabesque whorl around central rosette and Kufic inscription on side walls. Simple leaf decorations on outside Black-brown and dark brick-red slip with green spots on white slip under colorless glaze. Broken and reset, restorations in plaster.

(Atil, 1973)
The inner walls of this deep bowl possess a wide band of Arabic inscription written in dark-brown, enclosed by a border composed of alternating red and dark-brown scallops. The areas between the letters are filled with panels decorated with dark-brown dots, and red and brown four-petaled blossoms.
The central portion of the piece is adorned with an abstract tree which has five branches terminating in trilobed palmettes and split-leaves revolving around a central six-petaled rosette. This area is painted in reserve with the dark-brown slip forming the background of the tree. The central rosette and certain details on the branches are depicted in red. The branches revolve in a clockwise direction, in accordance with the reading of the inscription, and produce a movement which accentuates the circular shape of the bowl. The subtle placement of the trunk with one branch reversed, gently interrupts the revolving movement and ingeniously points out the beginning of the inscription which surrounds it.
The inscription is in two parts; the first portion begins after a small circle below the reversed branch of the tree and terminates with a floral motif; it is followed by a shorter phrase, placed on the bottom:
[arbc]
It is said that he who is content with his own opinion runs into danger. Blessing the owner.
The exeterior is divided into eight vertical zones by dark-brown branches which enclose three-petaled floral motifs painted in red.
The Freer bowl is one of the largest and finest of the slip-painted wares executed in Khorasan and Transoxiana. With its exceptionally highly refined aesthetic and technical perfection of Samanid pottery (O.Grabar, “Notes on the Decorative Composition of a Bowl from Northeastern Iran,” in Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp.91-98, fig.3).
The kufic inscription, written in the eastern Iranian style, is similar to those seen on Numbers 8 and 11, indicating that all three pieces are close in date. Since this bowl and the plate described in Number 11 both employ red in their color scheme and use a similar composition with an inscription surrounding a revolving central motif composed of branches, palmettes and split-leaves, they may have been executed in the same center.

Historical period(s)
Samanid period, 10th century
Medium
Earthenware painted under glaze
Dimensions
H x W x D: 11.2 x 39.3 x 39.3 cm (4 7/16 x 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 in)
Geography
Iran
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1957.24
On View Location
Freer Gallery 03: Engaging the Senses
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Plate

Keywords
earthenware, flower, Iran, Islam, kufic script, Samanid period (819 - 1005)
Provenance
Provenance research underway.
Description

Deep bowl on low ring foot with five-branched arabesque whorl around central rosette and Kufic inscription on side walls. Simple leaf decorations on outside Black-brown and dark brick-red slip with green spots on white slip under colorless glaze. Broken and reset, restorations in plaster.

(Atil, 1973)
The inner walls of this deep bowl possess a wide band of Arabic inscription written in dark-brown, enclosed by a border composed of alternating red and dark-brown scallops. The areas between the letters are filled with panels decorated with dark-brown dots, and red and brown four-petaled blossoms.
The central portion of the piece is adorned with an abstract tree which has five branches terminating in trilobed palmettes and split-leaves revolving around a central six-petaled rosette. This area is painted in reserve with the dark-brown slip forming the background of the tree. The central rosette and certain details on the branches are depicted in red. The branches revolve in a clockwise direction, in accordance with the reading of the inscription, and produce a movement which accentuates the circular shape of the bowl. The subtle placement of the trunk with one branch reversed, gently interrupts the revolving movement and ingeniously points out the beginning of the inscription which surrounds it.
The inscription is in two parts; the first portion begins after a small circle below the reversed branch of the tree and terminates with a floral motif; it is followed by a shorter phrase, placed on the bottom:
[arbc]
It is said that he who is content with his own opinion runs into danger. Blessing the owner.
The exeterior is divided into eight vertical zones by dark-brown branches which enclose three-petaled floral motifs painted in red.
The Freer bowl is one of the largest and finest of the slip-painted wares executed in Khorasan and Transoxiana. With its exceptionally highly refined aesthetic and technical perfection of Samanid pottery (O.Grabar, "Notes on the Decorative Composition of a Bowl from Northeastern Iran," in Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp.91-98, fig.3).
The kufic inscription, written in the eastern Iranian style, is similar to those seen on Numbers 8 and 11, indicating that all three pieces are close in date. Since this bowl and the plate described in Number 11 both employ red in their color scheme and use a similar composition with an inscription surrounding a revolving central motif composed of branches, palmettes and split-leaves, they may have been executed in the same center.

Inscription(s)

1. (Wheeler Thackston, Harvard University, Summer 1990) Inscription [Arb]

yugalu gad khatara man istaghna bi-ra'y * baraka li-sahibih

"It is said that he who thinks one opinion is enough runs a grave risk. Blessing to the owner."

Label

This deep bowl exemplifies the high technical quality and compositional sophistication achieved in 10th-century ceramics from northeastern Iran. Its central decoration consists of an abstract tree with five branches ending in palmettes and revolving around a small rosette. The dominant counter-clockwise movement of the stems is subtlely reversed by a branch to the trunk's left--a shift that ingeniously draws attention to the ovoid mark at the beginning of the Arabic inscription below. This inscription is bordered at the rim by a band of red and black scallops and on the walls by a series of irregular panels following the contours of the letters. It translates as follows: "It is said that he is content with his own opinion runs into danger. Blessing to the owner."

Published References
  • Sheila Blair. Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art. Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art Edinburgh. .
  • Sekai bijutsu zenshu [A Complete Collection of World Art]. 40 vols., Tokyo, 1960-1966. vol. 22: pl. 18.
  • Annemarie Schimmel. Islamic Calligraphy. Iconography of Religions, fasc. 1 Leiden. pl. 7A.
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 262.
  • O. Graber. The Formation of Islamic Art. New Haven. pl. 112.
  • Atif Toor. Islamic Culture. Discovering the Arts Vero Beach, Florida. cover.
  • Oleg Grabar. The Meditation of Ornament. Princeton. pp. 12-13, fig. 5.
  • Richard Ettinghausen. Medieval Near Eastern Ceramics in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and Baltimore. p. 13.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Humor and Wit in Islamic Art. vol. 7 New York, Fall 1994. pp. 14-15, fig. 2.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Exhibition of 2500 Years of Persian Art. Exh. cat. Washington, 1971. cat. 63, pp. 19-20.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Ceramics from the World of Islam. Exh. cat. Washington, 1973. cat. 12, pp. 36-37.
  • The 39th Annual Washington Antiques Show. p. 57, fig. 4.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Islamic Art in the Freer Gallery. vol. 3, no. 3, Autumn 1985. p. 59, fig. 6.
  • Volkmar Enderlein. Islamische Kunst. Dresden. p. 74.
  • Fu Shen, Glenn D. Lowry, Ann Yonemura, Thomas Lawton. From Concept to Context: Approaches to Asian and Islamic Calligraphy. Exh. cat. Washington. cat. 37, pp. 106, 112-113.
  • Ideals of Beauty: Asian and American Art in the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Thames and Hudson World of Art London and Washington, 2010. pp. 128-129.
  • Jangar Ya. Ilyasov. A Celebrated Bowl in the Freer Gallery: Nishapur, Samarqand or Tashkent? no. 65 Stuttgart. p. 158, figs. 1-2.
  • Dr. Esin Atil. Exhibition of Islamic Pottery at the Freer Gallery of Art. London, March 1974. p. 221, fig. 4.
  • Richard Ettinghausen, O. Graber. The Art and Architecture of Islam, 650-1250. The Pelican History of Art Hammondsworth, United Kingdom and New York. p. 230, fig. 239.
  • Sheila Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom. Islamic Arts. Art and Ideas London. pp. 248-9, fig. 133.
  • The Arts of Persia. New Haven and London. p. 257, fig. 5.
  • Jangar Ya. Ilyasov, SR Ilyasova, PA Imamberdiev, EA Ishakova. "«Нет блага в богатстве…» Глазурованная керамика Ташкентского оазиса IX–XII веков." "There is no good in wealth ..." Glazed pottery of the Tashkent oasis of the 9th-12th centuries. Moscow. p. 581, fig. 107.
Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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