Small Bowl with Quadruped and Inscription
10th century
Description
The Arabic word for “blessing” (baraka) is written twice below the curious four-legged beast that fills this small bowl. The slender legs of the animal and its hooves with dewclaws probably indicate that it was intended to be a deer, a creature admired for its beauty and prized by hunters as game. Its neck, head, and upper back are an early restoration, poorly painted on plaster fill.
Dimensions
5.6 x 16.2 cm (2 3/16 x 6 3/8 in.)
Provenance
[Hadji Baba Rabbi House of Antiquties, Teheran, before 1973], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (by 1973-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
Related Artworks
View MoreCizhou ware: buff to light-gray stoneware with lead-fluxed emerald-green glaze, now much degraded.
12th centuryChineseTerracotta, black glaze, decorated with grooves
5th-4th century BCEEtruscanCeramic
ChineseCarved rhinoceros horn
16th-17th centuryChineseSilver
17th-19th centuryFrenchSilver
17th-19th centuryFrenchCast bronze
13th-15th centuryKoreanSilverplate
20th centuryAmericanMetal
18th-19th centuryRussianPlaster
Silver
18th centuryBritishNorthern black ware of Cizhou type: light gray stoneware with dark brown glaze, the russet markings in overglaze iron oxide
12th centuryChinese