mina'i ware

File:Bowl, Mina'i ("enameled") ware MET DP372046 (cropped).jpg

File:Bowl, Mina'i ("enameled") ware MET DP370826 (cropped).jpg

{{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}} ware is a type of Persian pottery, or Islamic pottery, developed in Kashan in the decades leading up to the Mongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia in 1219, after which production ceased.Komaroff, 4; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 76; [https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/collections/islamicart/77591 Fitzwilliam Museum: "Mina’i, meaning ‘enamelled’ ware, is one of the glories of Islamic ceramics, and was a speciality of the renowned ceramics centre of Kashan in Iran during the decades of the late 12th and early 13th centuries preceding the Mongol invasions"]. Grube mentions a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum dated 1242, but this is not mentioned by later writers. It has been described as "probably the most luxurious of all types of ceramic ware produced in the eastern Islamic lands during the medieval period".Yale, 175 The ceramic body of white-ish fritware or stonepaste is fully decorated with detailed paintings using several colours, usually including figures.Yale, 175

It is significant as the first pottery to use overglaze enamels,Needham, 618; Watson (2012), 326; Watson (1985), 24; Gulbenkian, 54 painted over the ceramic glaze fixed by a main glost firing; after painting the wares were given a second firing at a lower temperature. "{{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}}" ({{langx|fa| مینایی}}), a term only used for these wares much later, means "enamelled" in the Persian language.Suleman, 144 The technique is also known as haft-rang, "seven colours" in Persian. This term was used by the near-contemporary writer Abu al-Qasim Kasani, who had a pottery background.[https://books.google.com/books?id=y94AdeXhdDEC&pg=PP6 Persian Tiles, p.3], 1993, by Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stefano Carboni, Tomoko Masuya; Morgan; Abu al-Qasim Kasani's work is dated 1301, and he says that the mina'i technique was not produced in his time. He himself seems to have moved to more genteel occupations around the Ilkhanid court. This technique much later became the standard method of decorating the best European and Chinese porcelain, though it is not clear that there was a connection between this and the earlier Persian use of the technique. As in other periods and regions when overglaze enamels were used, the purpose of the technique was to expand the range of colours available to painters beyond the very limited group that could withstand the temperature required for the main firing of the body and glaze,Yale, 175 which in the case of these wares was about 950 °C.Caiger-Smith, 57

The period also introduced underglaze decoration to Persian pottery, around 1200,Watson (2012), 326 and later mina'i pieces often combine both underglaze and overglaze decoration; the former may also be described as inglaze. Most pieces are dated imprecisely as, for example, "late 12th or early 13th century", but the few inscribed dates begin in the 1170s and end in 1219. Gilded pieces are often dated to around or after 1200. It is assumed that the style and subjects in the painting of mina'i ware were drawn from contemporary Persian manuscript paintings and wall paintings. It is known these existed, but no illustrated manuscripts or murals from the period before the Mongol conquest have survived, leaving the painting on the pottery as the best evidence of that style.Suleman, 144; Grube

Most pieces are bowls, cups, and a range of pouring vessels: ewers, jars, and jugs, but only a handful are huge. Some pieces are considered begging bowls, or using the shape associated with that function. Tiles are rare, perhaps designed as centrepieces surrounded by other materials, rather than placed in groups.Canby, #s 19, 20 {{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}} tiles found in situ by archaeologists at Konya, Turkey were probably made there by itinerant Persian artists.Canby, 82–83, 315, note 12 on #20 Sherds of mina'i ware have been excavated from "most urban sites in Iran and Central Asia" occupied during the period,Canby, 318, note 6 on #37 although most writers believe that nearly all production was in Kashan.Watson (2012), 329; Yale, 177–178

Wares and dates

File:Bowl by Abu Zayd al-Kashani, dated 1187 CE, Iran.jpg in 1187 CE, just a few years before the fall of the Seljuk Empire in 1194. Iran.{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451753 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}]]

Black and cobalt blue may be in underglaze, with a wider range of colours in overglaze. As well as the usual white glaze, a coloured turquoise glaze is used in some pieces, giving a background to the overglaze painting. The designs' outlines were black, with thin brushed lines.Osborne, 144 Some mina'i pieces, usually thought to be from the later part of the period, use gilding, sometimes on patterns on the body that are raised up (probably using slip).[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/460367 "Faceted Basin, Mina'i ("enameled") ware, early 13th century"], with Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 355. A few pieces combine lustre and mina'i painting in different zones.Yale, 175; one illustrated below; another example

File:Mina'i bowl, dated 1187 CE - Muharram, 583 A.H. Iran, Kashan, LACMA.jpg in 1194. Scene of poetic recitation, with poetic verses inscribed on the rim: "If the beloved leaves me, what am I to do? If s/he does not see the wisdom of our union, what am I to do?". Kashan, Iran. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.{{cite web |title=Bowl, LACMA Collections |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/228685 |website=collections.lacma.org}}]]

A small proportion (smaller than for lustreware) of pieces are signed and dated. Watson records ten such pieces, signed by three potters, with dates from 1178 to 1219. For Kashan lustreware the equivalent numbers are "over ninety" pieces, "perhaps six" potters, and dates from 1178 and 1226; there are then no dated pieces until 1261, suggesting the long-lasting disruption of the Mongol invasion.(2012), 328

Abū Zayd ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Zayd, a Kashani potter in this period, demonstrated that the same workshop might produce the two techniques with the most signed pieces, with fifteen pieces. The earliest date on these is 1187,{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451753 |website=www.metmuseum.org}} on a mina'i bowl, but most pieces are lustreware, where dates extend to 1219.[http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T000296 "Abu Zayd."] In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed June 2, 2020; subscription required).

In the Ilkhanate, overglaze painting continued in a rare new style called lajvardina wares, but these featured patterns rather than figures, with deep underglaze blue and gold leaf fixed in a second firing. The Persian name refers to lapis lazuli, though the usual cobalt blue was used.,{{iranica|il-khanids-iv-ceramics}}{{cite web |title=Covered Jar (Albarello) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451440 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}, Watson (2012), 336{{cite web |title=Three Tiles with 'Lajvardina' Glaze |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/447168 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}Osborne, 144

The study of mina'i ware is complicated by a lot of excessive restoration and embellishment by dealers after the pieces attracted the attention of collectors, mostly in the West, from the late 19th century onwards.Watson (2012), 336, note 43; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 66–69 For example, the catalogue entry for a bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the Robert Lehman collection, records that "Extensive restoration has interfered with the inscription in certain areas, and nearly every part of the interior decoration has been subjected to heavy overpainting".[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/460910 Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff], in The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 356. The outside of this lobed bowl is illustrated here.

Iconography

File:Beaker illustrating tale of Bizhan and Manizha from the Shahnama, Iran, early 13th century, composite body painted over glaze with enamel - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC04677 (cropped).jpg from the Shahnama, Freer Gallery of Art.Yale, 175–176; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 72–76; other side]]

A few pieces have entirely abstract or geometric patterns or designs, but in most pieces, there are figures, usually several small ones. Images of enthroned rulers flanked by attendants are standard, as are figures of riders, who are often engaged in princely pursuits such as hunting and falconry. The "inscrutable rulers were probably never meant to represent particular rulers or their consorts", any more than the loving couples.Caiger-Smith, 73 Similar motifs abound in other media; it is not clear to what extent they reflected the actual lifestyle of the owners or users of pieces; probably, these "may indicate a general middle-class aspiration or identification" with the princely lifestyle.Watson (2012), 328 quoted; Yale, 175; Canby, 72–73, #37, #71

Peacocks may accompany princes, and there are often numbers of the Islamic version of the sphinx, especially around the outer border of flat open shapes. Scenes and figures from the Persian literary classics can be seen. The outside of raised bowls is usually not painted with images, although some have relatively simple floral or abstract decoration, but inscriptions of text running around the piece are common.Yale, 175; Canby, 72–73, #37 Many of these are from standard works of Persian poetry, possibly taken from anthologies that would have been available to the potters.Canby, 318, note 5 on #39

File:Bowl, Iran, early 13th century, composite body painted over glaze with enamel - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC04687.jpg. This is the largest known survival in the mina'i technique. Kashan, early 13th century. Freer Gallery of Art.{{cite journal |last1=Holod |first1=Renata |title=The Freer Gallery's Siege Scene Plate |journal=Ars Orientalis |date=1 January 2012 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2097203}}{{cite web |title=Bowl |url=https://asia.si.edu/object/F1943.3/ |website=Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art}}]]

A well-known low bowl in the Freer Gallery of Art (reconstructed from fragments) is exceptional, both in its size of 47.8 cm across and in its design; it is the largest known plate in the mina'i technique.Holod, 195 There are a vast number of figures, all at the small size typical of other, smaller, pieces. They are engaged in a battle, probably a specific event of the period when "an Assassin stronghold was attacked by a petty Iranian prince and his troops". The eight principal figures on the victorious side are named in inscriptions next to them,Holod, 196 with Turkish names, and a siege engine and an elephant appear in the scene.Holod, throughout; Yale, 175 quoted This bowl is dated to the early 13th century.{{cite web |title=Bowl |url=https://asia.si.edu/object/F1943.3/ |website=Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art}}

This piece may well follow a depiction in a wall painting or other medium,Holod, 209; Grube as may a "celebrated" beaker, now also in the Freer, which is the fullest example of an iconographic scheme taken from the Persian literary classics, in this case, the Shahnameh. Here, a whole story is told in several scenes in three registers running around the cup.Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 72–76, 72 quoted

Context

File:Lobed bowl, Minai'i ("enameled") ware MET SLP1645-2 (cropped).jpg]]

{{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}} ware began to be made when Persia was, in theory, part of the Seljuk Empire, whose ruling dynasty and top elite were ethnically Turkish. But Persia was ruled by the Khwarazmian dynasty, also of Turkic origin, initially as vassals of the Seljuk, until in 1190, they severed these ties and ruled independently until the devastating Mongol conquest beginning in 1219. Although generally described as belonging to the "Seljuk period", some of the "most iconic" productions of stonepaste vessels can be attributed to the Khwarazmian rulers after the end of Seljuk domination."While stonepaste vessels are often attributed to the Seljuq period, some of the most iconic productions in the medium took place after this dynasty lost control over its eastern territories to other Central Asian Turkic groups, such as the Khwarezm-Shahis" in {{cite web |last1=Rugiadi |first1=Martina |title=Ceramic Technology in the Seljuq Period: Stonepaste in Syria and Iran in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sljt/hd_sljt.htm |website=www.metmuseum.org |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art (2021) |access-date=1 February 2023}}

The fifty years from 1150 saw great developments in Iranian ceramics. Firstly, the fritware body and the glazes used on it were greatly improved, allowing thinner walls and some translucency of Chinese porcelain, which was already imported into Persia and represented the main competition for local fine wares. This "white ware" body was used for various styles of decoration, all showing great advances in sophistication. Apart from {{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}} ware, the most luxurious was lustreware, which also required a light second firing; the earliest dated Persian piece is from 1179. The main colour of lustre paint used was gold; this needs to be distinguished from the overglaze application of gold leaf found in many later mina'i pieces.Osborne, 144–145; Caiger-Smith, 57–65; (2012), 325–326

File:Jug with seated figures and sketches, Mina'i ware, Central Iran, Seljuk period, late 12th or early 13th century, earthenware with polychrome enamels and gold over turquoise glaze - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04014.JPG

The "white ware" body was, however, not able to match Chinese porcelain in strength, and though historians praise the delicacy and lightness of {{lang|fa-Latn|Mina'i}} and lustred pieces, they are dubious about the practicality of these expensive wares, because of their fragility. Ceramics were not grave goods in Islamic societies, and almost all the survivals that have come down to us were broken, and probably mostly discarded after breakage. Most find sites are unrecorded; some pieces were buried unbroken, perhaps to hide them from looters.Savage, 86–87; Caiger-Smith, 65–66; Michelsen and Olafsdotter, throughout, especially 76–86, give an account of a technical examination by various methods of one crucial piece, surviving in many fragments. However, there are also modern forgeries and Michelsen and Olafsdotter note that "one must now be rather suspicious of any piece of mina'i, especially those that appear to be whole and unscathed".Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 69, note 6 Their extended technical analysis of a large and well-known dish now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, finds that much of the dish is made up of fragments originally from elsewhere (quite possibly also medieval) that have been reshaped to fit the dish, and then painted to match the decorative scheme.Michelsen and Olafsdotter, 76–86

Though luxurious and considered pottery, the new Persian lustre and mina'i wares may have represented a cost-saving alternative for vessels using precious metals, either in solid form or as inlays on brass or bronze. As early as 1100, the economy of the Seljuk Empire was weakening, and silver was in short supply.Caiger-Smith, 59

Lustreware was not a new technique; it had been used in the Arabic-speaking world for centuries,Caiger-Smith, 20–55 but was new to Persia. Its spread there has been connected to a flight of potters from Fustat (Cairo) during the turbulent collapse of Fatimid Egypt around 1160. Since the shapes in Persian lustreware are traditionally local, the refugee artisans likely were mostly pottery painters rather than potters. Lustreware painting styles can be connected to earlier ones in Arabic-speaking lands in a way that is not possible for mina'i ware, whose style, and possibly artists, are normally taken to be drawn from manuscript painting.Caiger-Smith, 57–59 It is even clearer to scholars that lustreware production was concentrated in Kashan than for mina'i ware.Caiger-Smith, 57–59; Yale, 178; Watson (2012), 328–329

The mina'i style was soon copied in other parts of the Seljuk empire, especially Syria. However, the makers did not know the secrets of the overglaze technique and used underglaze painting instead.[http://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;sy;Mus01;22;en Pitcher] in the National Museum of Damascus, Discover Islamic art The secrets of lustreware at least may have been held by a small number of families in Kashan.Caiger-Smith, 59 The later Persian mīnākārī style was and is enamel on a metal base, practiced from the 18th century to the present.{{Citation|last=Borjian|first=Habib|title=Isfahan xiii. CRAFTS|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/isfahan-xiii-crafts|publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica|publication-date=2007}}, Vol. XIV, Fasc. 1, pp.48–55

File:The Gulbenkian Museum (28595000138) (cropped).jpg|Bowl with ruler and sphinxes

File:Bowl w. enthroned figure & attendants, Mina'i ware, Central Iran, Seljuk period, late 12th or early 13th century, earthenware with polychrome enamels and gold over white glaze - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04021.JPG|Enthroned figure flanked by attendants.Canby, # 27

File:Bowl MET 57.36.14front.jpeg|Bahram Gur hunting with Azadeh; 3 5/8 x 8 3/8in. (9.2 x 21.3 cm)

File:Bowl with design of equestrian figure, Iran, Minai type, 13th century AD, enamelled ware pottery - Matsuoka Museum of Art - Tokyo, Japan - DSC07251.JPG|Rider in centre, with sphinxes in a band

File:Iranian - Flower Vase with Horsemen - Walters 481278 - Profile (cropped).jpg|Jug with figures, combining lustre painting (top) and mina'i; 22.5 × 12.8 cm (8.8 × 5 in)

File:Beggar's bowl w. sphinxes & seated figures, Mina'i ware, Central Iran, Seljuk period, late 12th or early 13th century, earthenware with polychrome enamels and gold over white glaze - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04018.JPG|Beggar's bowl with sphinxes & seated figures; colours include gilding

File:Iran, Kashan, Seljuk Period - Minai Beaker with Seated Princes - 1917.977 - Cleveland Museum of Art (cropped).tif|Beaker with seated figures

File:Bowl, Iran, early 13th century, stonepaste body painted over glaze with enamel - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC04629.jpg|Couple

File:Minai-ware jug - Kashan - 12th-13th century - IMJ B59-06-0542 - from side.jpeg|Jug with mounted falconer

File:Mina'i Bowl with Abstract Pattern MET wb-12.49.1.jpeg|Bowl with abstract pattern, 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm) across

File:Rustam and dragon on twelve-pointed tile, Iran, late 12th century, stonepaste painted over glaze with enamel and gold - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC04681.jpg|Star tile with Rustam and dragon

File:Faceted Basin, Mina'i ("enameled") ware MET SLP1644-1 (cropped).jpg|"Faceted Basin", with gilding over the pattern raised in slip. After 1200.{{cite web |title=Faceted Basin, Mina'i ("enameled") ware Iranian |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/460367 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}

File:Covered Jar (Albarello) MET DT11998 (cropped).jpg|Albarello jar in the succeeding "lajvardina" style; after 1250

File:Iran, versatoio, 1190-1210 ca..JPG|Ewer with gold lustre, 1190-1210

File:Bowl with Seated Figures by a Pond, Iran 1211-12, Ashmolean Museum.jpg|Bowl with Seated Figures by a Pond, Iran 1211-12, Ashmolean Museum

Notes

References

Caiger-Smith, Alan, Lustre Pottery: Technique, Tradition and Innovation in Islam and the Western World (Faber and Faber, 1985) {{ISBN|0571135072}}
Canby, Sheila R., and others ( Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, A. C. S. Peacock), Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs, 2016, Metropolitan Museum of Art, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BPrjCwAAQBAJ google books]
Grube, Ernst J., [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ceramics-xiv “CERAMICS xiv. The Islamic Period, 11th–15th centuries,”], Encyclopaedia Iranica, V/3
"Gulbenkian", Only the Best: Masterpieces of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, eds. Katharine Baetjer, James David Draper, 1999, Metropolitan Museum of Art, {{ISBN|0870999265}}, 9780870999260, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MkyoeRzsQkEC&pg=PA54 google books]
Holod, Renata, "Event and Memory: The Freer Gallery's Siege Scene Plate", Ars Orientalis, vol. 42, 2012, pp. 194–219. JSTOR, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43489775 JSTOR], Accessed 10 June 2020.
Komaroff, Linda, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353, 2002, Metropolitan Museum of Art, {{ISBN|1588390713}}, 9781588390714, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PStGzMYFt1EC&pg=PA4 google books]
Michelsen, Leslee Katrina and Olafsdotter, Johanna, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KCVzCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 "Telling Tales: Investigating a Mīnāʾī Bowl"], chapter 4 in Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod, ed. David J. Roxburgh, 2014, BRILL, {{ISBN|9004280286}}, 9789004280281
Morgan, Peter, [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-khanids-iv-ceramics "Il-khanids, iv, Ceramics; Production"], Encyclopaedia Iranica
Needham, Joseph (ed), Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part 12, 2004, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0521838339}}, 9780521838337, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mabcHwmAD5oC&pg=RA2-PA618 google books]
Osborne, Harold (ed), The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts, 1975, OUP, {{ISBN|0198661134}}
Savage, George, Pottery Through the Ages, Penguin, 1959
Suleman, Fahmida, "Ceramics", in Medieval Islamic Civilization: an Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, 2006, Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|0415966914}}, 9780415966917, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MypbfKdMePIC&pg=PA144 google books]
"Yale": Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, 2001, Islamic Art and Architecture: 650–1250, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|9780300088694}}
Watson, Oliver (1985), Persian Lustre Ware, 1985, Faber & Faber, {{ISBN|0571132359}}, [https://www.academia.edu/1615003/Persian_Lustre_Ware PDF www.academia.edu]
Watson, Oliver (2012), "Pottery under the Mongols" in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, 2012, BRILL, Ed. Linda Komaroff, {{ISBN|9004243402}}, 9789004243408, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wc2vM8uOBkoC&pg=PA336 google books]

External links

{{EI3|last=McClary|first=Richard Piran|title=Mīnāʾī ware|year=2021|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/minai-ware-COM_36442}}
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZBMAQQZ8sk "SCHOLAR FAVORITES: 12th–13th Century Mina’i Enamel Ware with Dr. Morris Rossabi"], Video (7:18) via YouTube, from the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design

Category:Iranian pottery

Category:Kashan

Category:12th century in Iran

Category:13th century in Iran