Vessels20th century

Dish with Horseman and Arabesque

20th century

Description

The off-white slip that covers this dish has been incised with a complicated design further elaborated in green, yellow, and purplish brown. An equestrian image fills the center of the dish: a crowned horseman wears a garment decorated with vertical stripes and an overlying arabesque, and his yellow horse is embellished with scribbled lines. A vigorous arabesque fills the background behind horse and rider. Running along the rim is an angular guilloche enclosing crosshatched segments of alternating yellow and green. Except for the base, the dish is entirely covered with a white slip and a clear glaze. It has been reassembled from eight fragments, with no significant losses. The horseman steals a glance backward—as did the potter who made this dish. Although dated to the twentieth century by thermoluminescence testing, the dish imitates a type of sgraffito vessels traditionally known as Aghkand wares, which are said to have been found at Aghkand, in northwestern Iran, and usually assigned to the twelfth century.

Classification

Vessels

Technique

Underglazed, painted

Medium

Reddish earthenware covered in white slip, carved, and painted with green (copper), yellow (iron), and dark brown (manganese) under clear lead glaze (with zinc and barium)

Century

20th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

4.4 x 28 cm (1 3/4 x 11 in.)

Provenance

[Mansour Gallery, London, 1975], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1975-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.

Related Artworks

Vessels

Ritual Wine Vessel (Zhi) with Abstract Decor

Unknown Artist, early Western Zhou period, mid 11th-early 10th century BCE

Cast bronze

11th-10th century BCEChinese

Vessels

Cylindrical Tankard with Dragon-Form Handle and Decoration of a Riverscape with Islands, Pavilions, and Fishermen

Unknown Artist, c. late 18th century

Export blue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue

18th centuryChinese

Vessels

Small bowl with angled shoulders

Unknown Artist, 11th-9th century BCE

Proto-porcelain: stoneware with thin ash glaze

11th-9th century BCEChinese

Vessels

Receptacle in the form of a toad, probably a stand

Unknown Artist, 2nd-1st century BCE

Gray earthenware with traces of cold-painted pigment

1st century BCE-1st century CEChinese

Vessels

Animal-Headed Ewer

Unknown Artist, 12th century

Fritware molded relief decoration under turquoise glaze

12th centuryPersian

Vessels

Pot with covered spout

Unknown Artist, 18th century

Pewter

18th centurySwiss

Vessels

Bizen Ware Plate with Decoration of Autumn Grasses in Mist

Kitaōji Rosanjin, Shōwa period, mid-20th century

Bizen-type ware; reddish stoneware with incised and combed decoration and with three bands of oxidized silver-foil embellishment

20th centuryJapanese

Vessels

REPRODUCTION OF A STONE VASE, FOUND AT MOCHLOS PL. V VI,1)

Unknown Artist

Plaster

Vessels

VOTIVE VESSEL FROM KNOSSOS - cup ? bowl ?

Unknown Artist

Greek

Vessels

Small Bowl with Lightly Flaring Lip, the Interior with Decoration of a Lotus Pond, the Exterior with Four Roundels, Each with a Bird Between Blossoming Plants

Unknown Artist, mid 16th-early 17th Century

Enameled blue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze red, green, yellow, and gold enamels; with cursorily written underglaze cobalt-blue mark possibly reading "Wan Fu Yu Tong" on the base

16th centuryChinese

Vessels

Elongated Vase with Everted Lip and "Mirror Black" Glaze

Unknown Artist, 19th century

Monochrome glazed porcelain: porcelain with black glaze

19th centuryChinese

Vessels

Cylindrical, Flat-Shouldered Jarlet with Decoration of Fruiting Peach Tree and Butterflies

Unknown Artist, early 18th century

Red-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze copper red; with underglaze cobalt blue circle on the base

18th centuryChinese