Some of the mina'i ceramics illustrate stories from the Persian epic, the Shahnama, predating its earliest surviving illustrated manuscripts by nearly a century. This bowl depicts the episode of Prince Bahram Gur hunting with Azada, his favorite concubine. Azada challenges Bahram Gur to a hunting feat, but when he succeeds, she pities the slain gazelles and reproaches him. In anger, he tramples her under his camel’s feet. The painter has conflated two different moments into one scene.
#6772. Reading: Pages from the Shahnama-Bahram Gur and Azade
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bahram Gur and Azada
Date:12th–13th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Stonepaste; polychrome inglaze and overglaze painted on opaque monochrome glaze (mina'i)
Dimensions:H. 3 13/16 in. (9.7 cm) Diam. 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Purchase, Rogers Fund, and Gift of The Schiff Foundation, 1957
Accession Number:57.36.13
Mina'i Bowl
Sometimes subjects painted on "mina'i" vessels were taken from the epic stories. On the bottom of this bowl is the illustration of one of the most popular stories in the Shahnama, the story of the Persian prince Bahram Gur and his harp-player slavegirl Azada. When Bahram Gur accompanied Azada for hunting, she asked him if he could prove his archery skill by turning a female gazelle into a male and a male into a female, and by shooting both ear and leg of a gazelle with just one arrow. Bahram Gur shot two arrows at the head of a female gazelle so that they looked like the two horns a male; he then shot a double-headed arrow at a male gazelle to take away his two horns so that he looked like a female. Finally, after throwing a pebble to the ear of a gazelle to cause it to scratch its ear with its leg, he shot his arrow and pinned together the ear and the leg of the gazelle. But Azada condemned him because she thought they were devilish acts. The angry Bahram Gur kicked her off the camel and she was immediately stamped under the camel's feet and killed. Here, Azada is illustrated twice, on the camelback playing the harp, then underneath the camel's feet, dead. Two of the arrow trials are depicted: a gazelle with two arrows on the head and another scratching its ear with its leg. Around the side is a band containing a procession of horsemen; even though only one has a polo stick, all these horsemen seem to play this game according to the position of their hands. The Kufic inscriptional bands both on the exterior and the interior of the bowl include good wishes to the owner and are written in Arabic.
Tomoko Matsuya in [Walker et al. 1994]
Inscription: Below the interior and exterior rim are benedictory inscriptions in Arabic in kufic script
On the exterior in kufic script:
العز الدائم و الاقبال الزائد و النصر الالب و العز الغالب رو الجد الصاعد و الدولة و السعادة و السلامة و الکرامة والـ...
A.Ghouchani
, 2010
Marking: -Sticker below base: PERSIAN / EXHIBITION / NEW YORK / 1940 / SJ11 -Sticker below base in pen or pencil: P. 257 / Schiff / No. 2
[ G.J. Demotte, New York and Paris]; [ M. Parish-Watson, New York]; his son, John M. Schiff, New York (by 1940–57; sold and gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931, no. 58.
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Migeon, Gaston. "Bibliotheque D'Histoire de L'Art." In Les Arts Musulmans. Paris: Librairie Nationale D'Art et D'Histoire, 1926. ill. pl. LVI.
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. 58, p. 14, ill. (b/w).
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Fontana, Maria Vittoria. "Materiale per la storia di una tipologia figurative dalle origini al XIV secola." In La Leggenda di Bahram Gur e Azada. Series minor (Istituto universitario orientale, Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici, Naples, Italy), Vol. 24. Naples, Italy: Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, 1986. no. 31, pp. 34–5,ill, tav. X, fig. 21.
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 Kahli, 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. 48, pp. 140–41, ill. (color).
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Porter, Yves. "Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World." Under the Adorned Dome : Four Essays in the Arts of Iran and India vol. 19 (2023). pp. 75–77, ill. fig. 2.27.
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