Conical bowl with panel style decoration

Curling arabesques and waterweed designs seem to float under the transparent glaze on this bowl. One can almost feel the fluidity of the artisan's paintbrush. Moreover, the finely applied colors have not run. The precision of the colors is the result of relatively stable pigments— cobalt oxide blue and manganese black—under an alkaline glaze. The technique of underglaze painting was developed in Iran in the late twelfth century and allowed for much greater detail than, for example, the techniques of carving the decoration into the surface or painting it in slip (diluted clay).

The artisan of this bowl also has made sophisticated use of positive and negative shapes: viewed from a distance, the reserve white ground of the bowl's center forms a hexagon from which the lobed motifs radiate outward. Striped, stippled and solid blocks of color are carefully balanced in the decorative program.

Narrow panels feature Persian poetry. The verses speak of the pain of love, a theme common in the arts of this period.

Although my heart is set more on fire through anguish
Every moment it gets more used to you
Take care! Do not blow, since in this, I am sick at heart [and]
The fire blazes with every breath
I call to mind, when [my beloved] set out on her journey
My happiness comes to an end,
[My rose colored tears that flow like water
With love's ardor, they flow towards the door]
Tr. Manijeh Bayani