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White dish with four cranes painted in shades of blue

This round white dish has a circular painted design at its center. Four cranes, each extending its wings and curving its head toward its legs, are arranged in a circle. Swirling shapes at their feet suggest moving water. Groups of swirls are positioned between the birds. A thick border with petal-like patterns surrounds the scene. It is divided at regular intervals by triangular shapes with scale-like designs.

Gallery Text

The works in this case were produced during the reigns of two dynasties that forged empires in the Iranian region: the Timurids (1370–1506) and the Safavids (1501–1722). The Central Asian warlord Timur concentrated in his capital city of Samarkand artists gathered from a vast empire stretching from Syria to India. Timur’s descendants ruled over a greatly reduced realm—parts of Iran and Afghanistan—but gained renown as patrons of the arts. The Timurid system of organizing artists into workshops in which designs were developed for the book arts and for dissemination into other media was emulated by later dynasties, notably the Safavids and Ottomans. Arising in northwestern Iran, the Safavids united all of greater Iran under their rule and established Shiʿi Islam as the state religion, as distinct from the Sunni branch practiced in the surrounding states.

Cultural exchange and industrial competition increased in these centuries, both across and beyond Islamic lands. Responding to the courts’ avid consumption of Chinese blue-and-white wares, Persian potters appropriated Chinese shapes, compositions, and motifs in their own works. In contrast, the colorful dish with scale patterns probably reflects the highly successful products of the Ottoman kilns to the west, in Iznik.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2005.83
Title
Large Dish with Flying Cranes
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
c. 1620
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Safavid period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/27601

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2550, Art from Islamic Lands, The Middle East and North Africa
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Fritware with molded decoration and underglaze painting in cobalt blue
Technique
Underglazed, painted
Dimensions
7.5 x 41.7 cm (2 15/16 x 16 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Private collection, London. [Irene Momtaz, Momtaz Islamic Art, London, 2005], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2005.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gweneth Knight Memorial Fund
Accession Year
2005
Object Number
2005.83
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This is a large dish with upturned rim, fluted cavetto, and low, hollow foot ring. The center is painted in under-glaze cobalt blue with a design of four cranes amid clouds. There are three shades of blue, with the darkest used for outlines and stippling. The exterior or underside is sparely decorated with a peach spray. In the center of the foot ring is a faint "tassel mark."

Publication History

  • Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2004-2005 (Cambridge, MA, 2005), p. 14
  • Jessica Chloros, "An Investigation of Cobalt Pigment on Islamic Ceramics at the Harvard Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2008), Unpublished, pp. 1-41 passim
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 85

Exhibition History

  • Re-View: Arts of India & the Islamic Lands, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/26/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu