Fine Iranian art whose production was stopped after the Mongol attack (+ photo)

One of the prominent examples of this art is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York; A bowl made in Iran between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century and depicts a scene from the story of Bahram Gore and Azadeh. In this work, Bahram Gore, the well-known hero of Iranian epic literature, is seen hunting with Azadeh, a harpist; A narrative that is reflected in Persian literature, including in the Shahnameh. This bowl is

Enamel, one of the most delicate and complex pottery methods of Iran in the Seljuk period, is an art in which pottery became a platform for narrating literary stories, hunting scenes, music gatherings, and human figures; The works that today are in the prestigious museums of the world, tell a part of the technical ability and artistic imagination of Iranian potters in the middle centuries.

According to Ambassador Arjan, one of the prominent examples of this art is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York; A bowl made in Iran between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century and depicts a scene from the story of Bahram Gore and Azadeh. In this work, Bahram Gore, the well-known hero of Iranian epic literature, is seen hunting with Azadeh, a harpist; A narrative that is reflected in Persian literature, including in the Shahnameh. This bowl is made of sandstone and decorated with multi-colored painting on glaze and gilding.

Depicting such a narrative on a clay vessel shows that the enamel potter was not limited to simply decorating a functional object, but turned the surface of the vessel into a kind of narrative plane. In the introduction of this group of works, the Metropolitan Museum also points out that many motifs on enamel vessels are related to Iranian literary and poetic subjects, including the stories of the Shahnameh, and in this sense, these pottery provide valuable information about the image traditions of Iran during the Seljuk period.

But what distinguishes these vessels from many contemporaneous pottery is not only the subject of painting; The technique of making them is equally complicated. "Mina'i" in today's terminology is derived from the Persian word "mina" and refers to a method of painting on pottery in which different colors were applied to the surface of the vessel after the initial glaze was created and re-stabilized by firing. This method is also known as "seven colors" in art sources.

The body of these vessels was usually made of a kind of delicate pottery known as sangpai or fritware; A material that was made from a combination of crushed quartz, glass ferrite and a small amount of clay and created a bright and hard body. After the body was prepared, the dish was covered with a clear and opaque glaze, and some of the colors were added to its surface in the first stage of cooking. Then, additional paintings and colors that did not last at the higher temperature were placed on the fired glaze, and the vessel was returned to the kiln at a lower temperature. Gilding could also be a part of these decorations.

These multi-stage cooking made the work very risky. A dish that was once taken out of the oven had to be exposed to heat again; It is at a temperature that is sufficient to stabilize the new colors but does not damage the previous glaze and decorations. The Metropolitan Museum has considered this multi-stage process as one of the reasons for the laborious and luxurious nature of enamel production.

Kashan is connected with this art more than any other city. Research sources consider Kashan to be one of the most important centers of exquisite pottery production in Iran in the 12th and 13th centuries AD, and many enamel works have been attributed to this city in art history studies. However, new research emphasizes that the archaeological evidence is not sufficient to attribute all enamelware to a single workshop or even definitively to Kashan.

This art was formed in a period when Iranian potters were looking for ways to increase the variety of color and visual complexity of pottery. The result was containers that sometimes resembled the illustrations of manuscripts in terms of composition and subject matter. Figures, horsemen, hunting, music, court gatherings and literary figures were placed together on the limited surface of a bowl or plate, turning the dish into a miniature image of the culture and life of the time.

Among these narratives, Shahnameh has a special place. Bahram Gor and Azadeh, Fereydoun, Bijan and Manijeh and other literary and epic characters have appeared in a number of enamel pottery. This issue takes the importance of these works beyond the history of pottery; Because it also provides researchers with a part of visual evidence about how Persian literature is represented in visual arts before the Mongol period.

There is not a single example of this art in the Metropolitan Museum. This museum has a remarkable collection of Iranian enamelware, including a bowl with the motif of "Bahram Gor and Azadeh", bowls with figures of horsemen and human assemblies, and a bowl with abstract patterns. Even an enamel drinking bowl with a row of horsemen is kept in this collection, which has inscriptions in Kufic script along with the patterns.

Another example of this art can be seen in the Los Angeles Art Museum (LACMA); A large drinking fountain attributed to Iran, Kashan and late 12th to early 13th century AD. The museum introduced this work from enamel pottery samples and pointed out the complex and expensive process of re-firing to stabilize the colors.

In fact, what can be seen today in the showcases of the world's museums of Iranian enamel, is not only a collection of decorative dishes; These works are proof of a period of technical experimentation of Iranian potters, in which glaze, color, gold and literary narrative were placed next to each other. A small dish could simultaneously be a functional object, a work of art and an image of a story that has been told in Iranian culture for centuries.

Enamel production, like many fine medieval pottery technologies, did not last long. The existing dated works are mainly from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century AD, and the available evidence shows that the production of this type of pottery stopped after the changes caused by the Mongol invasion of Iran and did not continue in the previous form. For this reason, every enamel bowl that can be seen today in a museum from New York to Los Angeles is not only an example of pottery art; It is a piece of a short-lived but very advanced tradition in the history of Iranian art.