Dish with horsemen (seven-colour decoration, called haft rang)

ca. 1170-1220

In the 12th century, the minai or haft rang lowfired technique made it possible to enrich the ceramic palette with the seven basic colours of brick red, white, black, green, blue, brown and, more exceptionally, gold, as on this dish, whose form and grisaille colouring are rare. A miniaturist style of considerable range in the Turkish and Iranian worlds developed in the workshops of Kashan and Rey. Drawn from the field of book production and displaying authentic pictorial art, the decoration combines kufic and cursive inscriptions – often not deciphered – with scenes recalling the illumination of manuscripts and the Asian aesthetic. The subjects are taken from the life of the court, as in the case of these juxtaposed riders on either side of a tree symbolising the ancient tree of life.