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Artwork Details
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Title:Bracelet
Date:12th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Gold, fabricated from sheet, decorated with bitumen-highlighted incising, granulation, and repoussé, set with glazed quartz, ruby, garnet, and, originally, two other stones
Dimensions:Max. Diam: 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Classification:Jewelry
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1959
Accession Number:59.84
Gold Bracelet
This gold bracelet, which has a very close parallel in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (65.249), incorporates a number of features frequently found in early medieval Iranian jewelry that have not been seen in the pieces dealt with thus far. It is constructed solely of thin sheet that has been worked in repoussé, granulated, incised, and partially highlighted with bitumen. The shape of the clasp and shank, the configuration of the granulation, and the epigraphic decoration highlighted with bitumen are closely paralleled on a pair of bracelets shared between the Freer Gallery of Art, \Vashington, D.C. (50.21), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (65.247). This is also the first time we have seen stones (including another glazed quartz) held in place with the heavy claws so typical of Persian jewelry of this period. The incised and bitumen-highlighted epigraphic and vegetal decoration places the bracelet very neatly in the early medieval period, most likely in the twelfth century.
[Jenkins and Keene 1983]
Bracelet
Like the bracelets of the Fatimid empire, this Iranian example is also fabricated from gold sheet folded to form a hollow shank, decorated with intricate ornament and inscribed in Arabic with good wishes. However, it is decorated with stones—including a large colorful quarz—that are set with thick gold claws, all of which perhaps speak to a distinctively Iranian taste.[1] In medieval Iran, textual evidence also suggests jewelry was given as a token of effection. For instance, in the Iranian national epic the Book of Kings, completed in 1010, the hero Zal sends jewelry to his beloved Rudaba through intermediaries, while later on at a clandestine meeting he beholds "her bracelets, torque, and earrings"[2]
Linda Komaroff in [Komaroff 2011]
Footnotes:
1. Jenkins, Marilyn, and Keene, Manuel. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p. 54.
2. Firsausi. The Shahnama of Firdausi. Translated by A.G. Warner and Edmond Warner. 9 vols. London: Kegan Paul, 1905–25, vol. 1, pgs 262, 265.
Bracelet
The tradition of bracelets with the heads of various animals and monsters as terminals is ancient and well-known. Typical of its period are this bracelet's method of construction, the repoussé work, the style and technique of the inscription as well as its use of bitumen in the background for contrast (less often achieved with niello), the granulation, and the wedge-shaped claws which hold the stone. A special peculiarity of the period is the glazed quartz (also used by ancient Egyptians), which seems to have been redeveloped with the revival of the manufacture of faience, the man-made composite ceramic body which becomes dominant in Iranian pottery from the twelfth century on.
It is interesting that the ancient jeweler has used a stone with almost no value as his centerpiece, even when the other stones include a ruby, pointing to the fact that color and beauty of design, rather than intrinsic monetary worth, was prized most.
Manuel Keene in [Berlin 1981]
[ Khalil Rabenou, New York, until 1959; sold to MMA]
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. 43.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 25.
Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 103.
New York. Forbes Galleries. "Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Jeweled Objects from the Cradle of Civilization," September 22, 2008–December 31, 2008, p. 110.
Chicago. Field Museum of Natural History. "Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Jeweled Objects from the Cradle of Civilization," February 13, 2009–June 14, 2009, p. 110.
Paris. Institut du Monde Arabe. "Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Jeweled Objects from the Cradle of Civilization," April 19, 2010–July 25, 2010, p. 110.
Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," June 5, 2011–September 5, 2011, no. 12.
Houston. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," October 23, 2011–January 15, 2012, no. 12.
Doha. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," March 21, 2012–June 2, 2012, no. 12.
"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 43, pp. 116–17, ill. p. 117 (color).
Keene, Manuel. "The Lapidary Arts in Islam." Expedition (1981). p. 28, ill. fig. 1.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 25, pp. 54–55, 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. 103, pp. 250–51, ill. (color).
Price, Judith. "Exquisite Objects from the Cradle of Civilization." In Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry. Philadelphia; London, 2008. p. 110, ill. (color).
Komaroff, Linda, ed. "The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts." In Gifts of the Sultan. Los Angeles; New Haven and London: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011. no. 12, pp. 26, 210, ill. fig. 20 (color).
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