This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Dish

Location:

Kyiv, Ukraine

Holding Museum:

The Khanenko Museum

About The Khanenko Museum, Kyiv

Date of Object:

AD 17th century

Museum Inventory Number:

105 БВ

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Stonepaste; painted with black under a transparent turquoise glaze

Dimensions:

Height: 5.8cm, Diameter: 34.3cm

Period / Dynasty:

Safavid

Provenance:

Iran, probably Isfahan or Tebriz

Description:

A few types of the AD 17th century Persian ceramic ware, painted in a free expressive style and covered with cracks, were traditionally known as “Kubachi” ceramics. This conventional name came from a village in Daghestan, where in the 19th century huge amounts of Iranian Safavid pottery were concentrated. However, the Iranian production centres of "Kubachi" wares are still to be defined.
Ceramic ware painted in black under transparent turquoise glaze belongs to a distinctive and possibly the earliest type of the “Kubachi” group. Turquoise has a special benevolent semantics in Persian culture due of the homonymy of Persian words firuza – turquoise (gemstone) and firuzi - victory, prosperity.
The decorative idea of the combination of black and turquoise originated in Iranian pottery in the late 12th century. The Timurid black-on-turquoise ware of the 15th century was the development of the tradition. In the 17th century, the style of black painting became noticeably lighter and freer. The very movement of the artist’s hand revealed the experience of a calligrapher.

How date and origin were established:

Stylistic analysis by I. Rapoport (examination, 1963, date, origin), H. Rudyk (publication, 2017, origin specified).

How Object was obtained:

Purchased by Bohdan and Varvara Khanenkos. Donated by Varvara Khanenko in 1918, nationalized by Bolshevik regime in 1919.

How provenance was established:

According to the entry in the old Museum Inventory Register (1925-1946).

Selected bibliography:

Bilenko, Halyna and Vyshnevetska, Mariya, et al., State Collections of Ukraine, album, The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, 2009.
Golombek, L. and Mason, R. B., et al., Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Leiden: Brill, 2013.
Rudyk, H. (ed), Charisma of Iran. Persian art of 12th–19th centuries from museum collections of Ukraine, Kyiv: The Khanenko Museum, 2017.

Citation of this web page:

Antonina Makarevych, Hanna Rudyk "Dish" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;uc;Mus21;31;en

Prepared by: Antonina Makarevych, Hanna Rudyk
Copyedited by: Janice MedinaJanice Medina

Janice Medina is an artist and educator based in Upstate New York. She studied interior design at Syracuse University and obtained her M.S. in Building Conservation in 2008 (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Master of Fine Arts in 2019 (University at Albany).

Janice is a former participant in the US/ICOMOS International Exchange Program and she has taught courses in the history of design and historic preservation. Her artwork is influenced by her experiences in historic preservation, as well as by building materials and the natural environment.

Janice has participated as a copy-editor with Museum With No Frontiers since 2019. In this role she has had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects including Discover Islamic Art, Discover Baroque Art and Discover Glass Art.

MWNF Working Number: UC1 31