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HOME :
Islamic Art :
Islamic Art. L : Nishapur glazed earthenware figurine of a horse
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Nishapur glazed earthenware figurine of a horse - MS.1695
Origin: Near East
Circa: 1100
AD
to 1200
AD
Dimensions:
8" (20.3cm) high
x 6" (15.2cm) wide
Collection: Islamic Art
£6,000.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
Nishapur is a city in northeastern Iran that was
founded around the 3rd century A.D., grew to
prominence in the 8th century, and was
completely ruined by invasions and earthquakes
in the 13th century.
After that time, a much smaller settlement was
established just north of the ancient town, and
the once bustling metropolis lay underground—
until a team of excavators from the New York
Metropolitan Museum arrived in the mid-20th
century.
They worked at Nishapur between 1935 and
1940, returning for a final season in the winter of
1947–48.
The excavators had been drawn to the city
because of its fame in the medieval period, when
it flourished as a regional capital and was home
to many religious scholars. It was also known as
an economic center—Nishapur was located on
the trade route known as the Silk Road, which ran
from China to the Mediterranean Sea, crossing
Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey along
the way. In addition, Nishapur was a source of
turquoise and a center for growing cotton,
producing cotton textiles as well as several types
of fabric incorporating silk.
One of the most unusual products of Nishapur,
however, was its edible earth, which was believed
to have curative properties. At its peak between
the 9th and 13th centuries, Nishapur had a
population of approximately 100,000 to 200,000
people, and development covering an area of
approximately 6 and a half square miles.
The Museum’s team of researchers, Joseph
Upton, Walter Hauser, and Charles Wilkinson,
worked at Nishapur under a cooperative
agreement with the Iranian government that
permitted them to excavate so long as half of the
material found was shared with the Iran Bastan
Museum in Tehran. Their trenches were located
throughout the medieval city, sited where
significant finds had already been made by locals
or where they could obtain permission to dig (as
much of the site was under cultivation). They
gave each site a name based on its local
nickname or a distinguishing topographical
feature.
Two areas provided particularly rich finds. The
first site to be excavated, called Sabz Pushan
(“green mound” in Persian), had been a thriving
residential neighborhood occupied between the
9th and 12th centuries, with houses of three to
four rooms connected by small alleys. Of the
large area this neighborhood once occupied,
approximately fifteen houses were eventually
excavated. One of these houses had particularly
well-preserved decoration, with carved stucco
panels covering the lower part of the wall, the
dado, in several rooms.
The panels were originally painted in bright
yellows, reds, and blues, with equally colorful
murals on the plaster walls above, but once the
panels were exposed to the air, the colors that
the excavators first saw quickly disappeared.
At a part of the site the locals called Tepe
Madrasa, the excavators had expected to find
one of Nishapur’s famed institutions of learning,
or madrasa. Instead, they uncovered a large
residential area with a mosque that had been
developed and rebuilt in several phases between
the 9th and 12th centuries. Inside one of the
residences, perhaps the palace of the city’s ninth-
century governors, they found a room with an
extraordinary set of wall paintings whose
iconography appears unique to the site.
Hundreds of objects were discovered during the
course of the excavations. Each year, a share was
shipped back to New York, for the Metropolitan
Museum, where the objects were restored and
placed on display.
These objects were significant in providing
information on several different artistic traditions.
In terms of ceramics, they brought to light several
types whose decoration was unique to this part
of Iran. These were typically decorated with
strong-colored slips, made of diluted clay, in bold
patterns.
The distinctive ceramics produced in Nishapur
were traded around the region, and have been
found at Herat, Merv, and Samarqand.
The evidence from the excavations also revealed
much about the development of architectural
decoration in northeastern Iran. Walls in
residences and public buildings throughout
Nishapur were decorated in many different ways,
from frescoes to carved and painted stucco,
terracotta panels to glazed ceramic tiles. The
range of imagery was also wide, including
geometric and vegetal patterns, calligraphy,
figures, and animals. The refined tradition of wall
painting shows links with the earlier history of the
region, such as Buddhist paintings in Central Asia
and Sasanian paintings in Iran, as well as with
contemporary painting of Iraq. Carved stucco
decoration, perennially important in Iranian
architecture, was represented in examples found
throughout the site.
The exteriors of large public buildings were clad
in baked bricks set in decorative patterns, large
terracotta panels carved with multilayered
ornament, or glazed tiles, often in shades of
bright blue.
In addition, Nishapur was an important center for
the manufacture of glass, metal, and stone
vessels as well as textiles. None of the latter were
found in the excavations, no doubt due to their
highly perishable nature. However, beautifully
decorated spindle whorls were excavated by the
hundreds. Smaller items such as toys, game
pieces, musical instruments, and beads throw
light on everyday activities in Nishapur and give
us a better understanding of daily life for its
citizens.
- (MS.1695)
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