Bowl with Encircling Dragon
Bowl with Encircling Dragon
Nishapur, Iran
1400s (Timurid period, 1370–1507)
Ceramic with underglaze Blue
Bj Averitt Islamic Art Fund in honor of Ernst J. Grube, 1993.101
This bowl's story illustrates the movement of people and ideas in Asia through to the fifteenth century, connecting people in the East and West through the civilization of the Muslim world.
Ceramics have always been an important Islamic art form. Muslim innovations include lusterware, with a glaze that imitated metal surfaces, and sgraffito, a technique where a lightly colored clay slip is scratched away to reveal a darker surface underneath. Other developments included using calligraphy as decoration, and the use of cobalt blue glazes which would be adopted in China to become famous on Ming dynasty ceramics hundreds of years later.
With this rich history of ceramics to build upon, Muslim artists began adopting styles from further east and incorporating them in their local output. From T’ang dynasty China (618-907), gold, green and brown glazes were added to otherwise characteristically Muslim pieces. The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century brought significant Eastern influences to Islamic art as well, particularly in ceramics and painting.
In the fourteenth century another wave of conquerors descended on Persia under the famous leader Timur, or Tamerlane. By the fifteenth century they had taken control of most of Central and Western Asia. Importing fine Chinese ceramics became a fashion in this period, including pieces decorated with the famous cobalt blue originally derived from Persian mines. Local artists soon began adapting the popular Chinese style to their pieces, and this blending is responsible for the Denver Art Museum’s “Bowl with Encircling Dragon.”
The bowl has beautiful blue decoration, with a serpentine dragon encircling the vessel. With its flowing mane, wide eye and outstretched claws it is easy to sense the energy in the dragon’s movements. Some suggest that the bush-like cluster before the dragon is in fact the flaming pearl of Chinese mythology. The dragon motif seems to have been a favorite of Timurid rulers, and it appears prominently on other works of the region as an indication of contact with the East.
The rim of the bowl is encircled with a woven floral motif, and the well of the bowl is decorated with a Chinese-derived floral pattern. Overall, the piece is a fine example of how local Muslim Persian techniques and materials were blended with imported tastes and themes in the fifteenth century.
