This popular equestrian theme takes on monumental proportions when rendered in the "silhouette" style, but incised details in the rider’s face and the horse’s caparison lighten the black slip-drawn image.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Dish with Horse and Rider
Date:13th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Stonepaste; incised decoration through a black slip ground under a turquoise glaze (silhouette ware)
Dimensions:H. 3 in. (7.6 cm) Diam. 12 3/4 in. (32.4 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1945
Accession Number:45.153.2
Dish
Belonging to the same group as cup 1970.36 (no. 26 in this catalogue), this dish is an unusually fine example of the type and the well-proportioned and finely drawn horse and rider is an atypical design for this ware.
The reasons for attributing this ware to Rayy are amply illustrated here. Not only is the shape very characteristic of Rayy luster-pinted ware (see MMA 64.60.3, no. 29 in this catalogue) but so are the large central design and the background of leaf scrolls as well as the style of the drawing itself.
The color scheme employed on this silhouette group is that of a black design covered with either a transparent turquoise or a transparent clear glaze.
Marilyn Jenkins in [Berlin 1981]
Silhouette Ware Dish
This dish belongs to a type of underglaze painted ware often called "silhouette," generally attributed to Iran from the second half of the twelfth century to the early thirteenth century. After a paste was shaped, a slip mixed with a black pigment was coated thickly onto the entire surface of the body or a part of it with a brush. Then designs were incised on the black surface and subsequently a transparent turquoise or a transparent clear glaze was applied. On this dish, the black slip was painted only on the interior of the vessel; the exterior is covered solely with the turquoise glaze. While the rim is incised with with a bold linear design of a trefoil motif alternating with ovals, the central field is incised with a horseman in minute lines and its background is delicately carved to reserve the complicated scrolls with flowers. This is an exceptionately fine example of the "silhouette" ware, which usually has very rigid lines of incision for designs and ornamentation. The representation of the well-balanced human figure is comparable to that of the "mina'i" paintings.
Tomoko Masuya in [Walker et al. 1994]
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, New York (by 1931–45; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931, no. 90.
Berlin. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the M.M.A.," June 15, 1981–August 8, 1981, no. 27.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, not in catalog.
Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 50.
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Riding Across Central Asia: Images of the Mongolian Horse in Islamic Art," April 26–November 12, 2000, no catalogue.
Dimand, Maurice S. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 12–June 28, 1931." In Ceramic Art of the Near East. New York, 1931. no. 90, p. 21.
Harari, Ralph, and Richard Ettinghausen. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, edited by Arthur Upham Pope. vol. I–VI. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. vol. II, p. 1615, ill. vol. V, pl. 744A.
Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 178.
"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 27, pp. 84–85, ill. (color).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel S. Walker, Arturo Ponce Guadián, Sussan Babaie, Stefano Carboni, Aimee Froom, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, Tomoko Masuya, Annie Christine Daskalakis-Matthews, Abdallah Kahil, and Rochelle Kessler. "Colegio de San Ildefonso, Septiembre de 1994–Enero de 1995." In Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994. no. 50, pp. 144–45, ill. (b/w).
Alexander, David. Furusiyya: Catalogue. vol. 2. Riyadh,Saudi Arabia: King Abdulaziz Public Library, 1996. no. 60, p. 71, ill. (color).
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