Bowl with Four Horsemen and Inscription

Mina’i is a modern collectors’ term for ceramics made in Iran during the late 12th to early 13th centuries. The term mina’i, translates as “enamelled” in Persian, designating the colored glass pigments used to paint detailed figural decoration on vessels or tiles, which were then fixed on the ceramic base by multiple firings. The use of a wide range of colors, including turquoise, red, green, purple, and black, also led these types of ceramics to be called by the Persian term “haft rang,” or “seven colors.”
These colorful compositions created complex narrative scenes which paralleled manuscript painting. Mina’i ware scenes often depict courtly pursuits, such as feasting, fighting, or poetry and music performances. This repertoire of activities is encompassed on this bowl’s decoration. At the center, the figures of four hunters on horseback, alternate with vegetal scrolls.There is an inscription in cursive naskhi on the outer rim of the bowl.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.