Large dish with design of rabbits and lotuslike flowers

Images(12)

Large dish with design of rabbits and lotuslike flowers

Place of Originprobably Kashan, Iran

Dateapprox. 1200-1300

MaterialsComposite-body ceramic (fritware) with overglaze luster decoration

DimensionsH. 3 1/4 in x Diam. 13 1/8 in, H. 8.3 cm x Diam. 33.3 cm

Credit LineThe Avery Brundage Collection

Object numberB60P1950

DepartmentWest Asian Art

ClassificationsCeramics

On View

On view

LocationGallery 7

InscribedWith small parts restored In lustre on white: A Persian quatrain, followed by a qit'a (a form of poetry where each couplet rhymes differently) all in Persian, suggested readings and translations: "The one who put his sash on, went towards the other side As he was leaving, infirm He said: Though the master went to the other side (i.e. died) He never left the great cycle of time. Learn that if tyranny is blind It will show its nakedness in the grave Did you hear that out of humanity A sage came ..... to help He was going happily in the herb-garden He ran towards the cemetery [His] people told him harshly That we did not see a simpleton with the heart of a man" Round the rim, reserved against lustre: Repitition of possibily a phrase: Undeciphered (Trans. Manijeh Bayani Wolpert, Dec. 1, 2007)

More Information

These rabbits flanking a lotus show the influence of Chinese motifs on Persian ceramics of this era. The lotus and other motifs introduced on ceramics at this time can be linked to the influence of Mongol invaders, who ruled both Persia and China in the later 1200s.

Subject