An Iconographic Analysis of a Picture on a Bowl from Kashan along with a Criticism on Guest and Ettinghausen's Views

The illustration of potteries with narrative themes in Iran became common from the late Seljuk era onenamel and luster glaze works. These works contain different themes from court scenes and everyday life to those inspired from historical and literary narratives. The lack of direct representation of the narrative and the ambiguities of the illustrated subjects are among those factors which have made the understanding of their exact connotations difficult. One of the examples in this regard is the luster-glazed bowl in Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. This paper, besides criticizing Guest and Ettinghausen’s views, aims at examining and interpreting the hidden meaning of the image in a bowl from this period (one of the most prominent works in luster glaze) now preserved at Freer Galley on the basis of iconographical approach and library research. Here, we have first described the elements of the image and identified the motifs and the present connections among them. Then, the subject of the image has been studied and the theory of its narrative is tested by referring to literary resources and historical investigation of Khosrow and Shirin story and some other legendry tales of that period through studying and comparing common themes of the time. We inferred that the image goes back tothe tradition of illustration of that period taken from an oral historical narrative with romantic themes and Shams al-Din al-Hassani, its narrator, has made a quick reference to one of its parts by emphasizing on oral narratives. We also reviewed the mystical theory of the image and after studying related texts, the examinations identified that mysticism has been much influential in choosing the subject of thenarrative as well as the content of poems written on the bowl. Having rejected the theories of the mentioned thinkers about the mere mystical aspects of illustrated sections, it is concluded that the representation of abstract mystical concepts was not the only point to be mentioned. Itis said that Shams al-Din the poet has been familiar with mysticism. This recognition has firmly rooted into the picture by the influences on the subject and content of the inscriptions’ poems. We could finally make the conclusion that this romantic narrative conforms to mystical concepts due to the same theme, i.e.“love and beauty”. Furthermore it is possible to regard this bowl, as one the numerous decorative objects in the late Seljuk period displaying a romantic narrative. The mystical themes of love in it have been manifested by the poems on the rim while intensifying the hidden sense of mysticism of the picture.