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Cup with plowing scene
Tenth to eleventh century
© Musée du Louvre
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Cup with plowing scene
Tenth to eleventh century
Iran (Khurasan) or Central Asia
Earthenware ceramic with slip, pigment, and slip decoration under a transparent glaze
H. 7 cm; Diam. 18.3 cm
Purchased 1991
MAO 858
Islamic Art
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Cup with plowing scene |
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The iconography of this cup, showing a scene from rural life, is unique in Iranian ceramic production. It might have been thought that such a scene would appeal to the cup's owner, a landowner. In astrology the zebu is associated with the moon; the animal's presence could be seen as either a good or a bad omen.
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Iran in the first centuries of Islam
This piece dates from the Samanid dynasty, which ruled over Khurasan, Transoxiana and eastern Iran from 819 to 1005. Theoretically, their power was established in the name of the caliphs of Baghdad, the Abassids, but their autonomy continually increased. The economic prosperity of their kingdom was based on the control of the caravan routes of Central Asia. In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, these routes were used to import Turkic slaves as recruits for the caliph's army. At this time, regional capitals such as Samarkand, Merv, and Nishapur became centers for intellectual life, concurrent with Bukhara, seat of the Samanid court. Bukhara was a locus for trading and craft activities and clearly a cultural center as well, where Arab and a revived Persian literature were practiced.
A rural scene
Two enormous, inverted zebus, their bodies decorated with plant motifs, stretch out horizontally across the entire cup. Around their necks is the yoke of a plow wielded by a peasant, whose smallness contrasts sharply with the oversized beasts he is supposed to be guiding. He is wearing boots and traces a movement in the air with a switch. The dynamism of this figure is accentuated by the dark line that outlines the decorative motifs, strongly emphasized by the cup's maker.
The Arabic letter "kaf" ("k"), written in Kufic script, has been placed at the end of the muzzle of one of the zebus. This could be the simplified form of a blessing commonly found on Nishapur ceramics, expressed by the word "baraka". The decoration, consisting of small, very stylized floral elements arranged in spirals, fills the bottom of the cup and places this work in the so-called "kaleidoscopic" series. The outside of the cup is decorated with a very simple motif of alternating vertical lines and elongated ovals. The cup rests on a large round base; in profile, it appears somewhat squat, with a very slightly bulge; its round sides then flare out markedly.
An original theme
Although the decorative technique - pigments and slip beneath a clear glaze - and the coloring are characteristic of this type of object, the subject, a plowing scene, is unique as far we know. Representations of farming life are very rare in Islamic art, even though agricultural activities remain very much daily preoccupations.
The cup belongs to a specific series of ceramics that are characterized by their striking and varied themes. They also feature central elements of a scale so monumental that they leave very little room for other decorative features. This is the case, for example, of the cup with a pair of lovers (in the Louvre's collections), in which two figures face outward, their arms entwined above and below. In the same vein, the large cup with a knight brandishing a sword (also in the Louvre) shares a number of similarities.
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Nouvelles acquisitions, Arts d'Islam, 1988-2001, Paris, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2002, n 22, p.52.
Lane Arthur, Early Islamic pottery. Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia, Londres, Faber and faber, 1965.
Mouliérac Jeannne, Céramique du monde musulman. Collections de l'Institut du monde arabe et de J.P. et F. Croisier, Paris, Institut du monde arabe, 1999 (collection passion).
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Islamic Art : 
