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Dish with fish
Late 13th, early 14th century
© Musée du Louvre
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Dish with fish
Late 13th, early 14th century
Iran
Siliceous body, low-fired, gilded decoration over opacified colored glaze
Purchased 1911
OA 6456
Islamic Art
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| Author(s) |
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| Valérie de Wulf |
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Dish with fish |
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This piece with its relief motifs recalls the Chinese celadon ware much exported in the Sung and Yuan periods. It is of the type known as lajvardina.
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Lively, radiant decoration
This dish with its S-curved sides, sloping rim and grooved lip is decorated with very great finesse. It is also in a most unusually fine state of preservation. The decoration is arranged in concentric bands around a central roundel. At the center of the roundel is a fish in relief, curled up on itself. This is surrounded by two circles of six and ten fish respectively, on a ground covered by fine scrolling stems adorned with flowers, like waterweed stirred into movement by the passage of the fish. Outside this, the first band has a dedicatory formula in a form of Thuluth script. The second has a repeated arcaded motif which would seem to represent the petals of a very large flower, or perhaps the rays of the sun. The third, on the rim, has Kufic pseudo-calligraphy interrupted by four rosettes in relief.
A piece of great luxury
This is an exceptional piece. The color of the ground is untypical of lajvardina ware, which takes its name from the Persian word 'lajvard,' meaning lapis lazuli, the glazes generally being of dark blue. Lajvardina is low-fired, a technique inherited from the 'mina'i' or 'haft rang' ware of Seljukid Iran, which used a low temperature of some 750 degrees to fix the decoration of a piece already once fired and glazed. Touches of gold enliven a palette that has lost a degree of variety since the Seljukid period.
Ilkanid art
If the form, some of the motifs, and most especially the color of the ground may recall Chinese celadon ware of the Yuan dynasty, the specific technique, the epigraphic decoration and the fish motifs identify this as an example of Ilkhanid art. The Ilkhans, of Mongol origin like the Yuan, ruled over the Iranian world during the same period. The shared origins of the two dynasties encouraged artistic exchange between China and Iran. The "fish circle" theme develops in the Islamic world in the 12th century; it exists in a number of variants, but is often found on the bottoms of metal basins, whether Mamluk (MAO 331) or Ilkhanid (OA 7880, OA 118).
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Arabesques et jardins de paradis, collections françaises d'art islamique, cat. exp. Paris, musée du Louvre, 16 octobre 1989-15 janvier 1990,
Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1989-1990.
Arts de l'Islam des origines à 1700 dans les collections publiques françaises, cat. exp. Paris, musée de l'Orangerie des Tuileries, 22 juin-30 août 1971, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1971, n 53.
Bernus-Taylor Marthe, Les Arts de l'Islam, guide du visiteur, Paris,
Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001.
Carboni Stefano, Komaroff Linda (sous la dir. de), The Legacy of Genghis Khan, Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353, cat. exp. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 5 novembre 2002-16 février 2003, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 13 avril-27 juillet 2003, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, n 130.
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Islamic Art : 
