Exchange: Star-shaped tile with phoenix among clouds

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35 Items in this Learning Collection

This cup is fashioned from a coconut shell set in a shallow bowl supported on a long, narrow stem and held in place by three straps and a tall neck band. The shallow domed lid has a plain, overhanging rim and terminates in a finial with a statuette of a nude sea nymph and serpent. The metalwork is densely decorated with various masks, animals, fantastic creatures, and vegetal ornament.

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Double Festoon Relief Fragment with Putto's Head

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Eve Tempted by the Serpent

A nude woman with long hair flowing down her back grasps a tree branch with her right hand and bends it downward in order to more easily pluck the green fruit dangling at its tip with her left hand. Her white body contrasts starkly with the darker tones of the surrounding landscape. The less conspicuous figure of a serpent with the head of a bearded man coils about the trunk of the tree next to the woman and fixes her with his stare.

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St. John the Evangelist on Patmos

St. John the Evangelist sits in the foreground with a book open on his knee and quill pen poised over its pages. Two books rest next to him and an eagle has alighted on an adjacent rock. St. John looks up and to his right to see a standing figure of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ, who appear in a glowing mandorla hovering in the sky. A vast panoramic view of a bustling harbor and formidable mountains unfolds behind St. John and extends into the distance.

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An angel, holding a scepter in his left hand and making a gesture of speech with his right, interrupts the Virgin at her reading. She kneels on the floor and rests her left hand on an open book placed atop a lectern. A vase with a flowering lily sits on the floor between the angel and the Virgin and a small white dove encircled by a halo hovers between them. The scene unfolds within an elaborate and richly decorated interior that includes a chair and canopied bed in the background.

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Bowl Fragment with Figural Designs

This fragment of a Mongol Islamic bowl comes from 14th century Iran. The side design features a kneeling person with a bottle, while the side panels have leopards and floral decoration. <br />
Colors included are cobalt, turquoise, green, and dark geen-gray on a cream-tan ground. The fragment is about one-third of the original bowl.<br /><br /><br /><br />

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Mina'i ware bowl fragment with confronting equestrian figures

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The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

This painting depicts the interior of a room where four men are grouped around a table. They are painted as half-length figures, and their forms fill the foreground. They are painted in warm tones of brown, red and green and dressed in 16th century Netherlandish clothing. There is a king, wearing a pointed crown, who, with his right arm awkwardly crossed over his left, points to another man across the table. He has a furrowed brow and his mouth is partially open as if he is speaking. Next to him is a man looking downward, intently counting coins piled on the table. The third man pauses while writing in a book, his hand with the pen is stopped in mid-air, and looks back at the king. The fourth man, on the other side of the table, has his hands clasped in a pleading gesture and his eyes meet the gaze of the king. Items in the room and on the table such as books, scissors, a money bag, and an hourglass, are painted in great detail. In the upper right, a small outdoor scene, painted in tones of light green, shows

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Map of the Sun. Illustration from, 'Mundus Subterraneus,' by Athanasius Kircher

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Star-shaped tile with phoenix among clouds

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Shallow bowl with stylized floral medallion

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Casket with inscription in floriated Kufic script

This inlaid bronze casket with Kufic inscription was masterfully produced in the 12th century Seljuk period. Possibly of Syrian origin, the lid is hammered from a flat sheet of brass with the bottom formed by folding and joining a section cut from a flat sheet. The seams are on three sides of the base and in the rear under the right-hand hinge. Brass hinges on the object are attached by copper rivets. Originally, the object would have a handle and front clasp which are now missing. <br /><br />

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Chest (no lock)

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The front of this handsome oak credenza, or sideboard, is divided into halves by three pilasters. Each half is outfitted with a drawer and a door below. The decorative and functional components are artfully arranged across the front of the piece to form a balanced composition of repeated geometric shapes and harmonious proportions.

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Carved Wood Panel

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A nude, standing child figure with the right hand raised to chin-level. The forefinger and middle finger are raised and the thumb is out.

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Photograph of a tableau in a Catholic church in Oaxaca, Mexico. The scene includes Christ, Mary, and other religious figures.

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Calvario, Patzcuaro

Photograph of a tableau from a Catholic church in Calvario, Patzuaro, Mexico. The scene includes a male figure at the center, with two women and one man arranged behind him.

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Adoration of the Magi

This unfinished painted study depicts a crowd of figures gathered around three richly dressed men and a woman and child, who appear on a flight of stairs near the entrance to a large building decorated with classical columns and pilasters. An elderly bald man wearing a red cloak trimmed with ermine kneels with his head bowed at the top of the stairs before a kneeling woman who holds an infant in her right arm. Another man wearing a turban decorated with a large feather stands behind the kneeling man and holds a gold censer hanging from a chain in his left hand. A third richly dressed man stands at the bottom of the stairs with his back turned toward the viewer. A number of other figures crowd around this central group from the sides. A large ox sits in the right foreground with a donkey standing behind it.

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The Annunciation

An angel, draped with a flowing red mantle, descends on the left from a bank of clouds. He holds a scepter and twisting scroll in his left hand while he points with his right toward a white dove encircled by a halo of light that descends toward a woman dressed in long robes and a veil. She sits, holding a book open on the lectern before her, and draws back slightly with her right hand raised and her eyes downcast. Six cherubim sit above on the edge of the cloudbank, which opens to reveal a male figure barely visible in the blinding light that fills the cloud.

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Incense burner lid with peacock-shaped finial

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Deep bowl with vegetal and calligraphic designs

The vibrant coloring of this deep bowl consists dark brown, muddy brown, yellow-green and ivory. The design is organized around an inscription which appears above the base far down on the side. Above the inscription running horizontally is a separate enclosed design which looks like arcaded doorways with a string with a ball on it cutting each arcade in half for a total of seven. Opposite this is a series of four and one-half arcades in a vertical direction. Between these two areas there is a design repeated on opposite sides of the bowl with floral circular motifs on each side of a large, abstracted pear-shape form. The circles are brown and yellow-green and the pear form is orange and brown. Beneath each circle is a 'base' narrowing towards the center and directing the eye to the base. The base is covered with a shield-like design of orange and brown. The ivory background is not filled in but certain lines have been incised to add greater interest. <br />

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Faucet with Peacock Spigot and Lion-Headed Spout

This large bronze faucet features a peacock spigot and a lion-headed spout.

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Persian poetry anthology manuscript page

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Self-Portrait with carnations

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Gamepiece of an Armed Knight Throttling a Monstrous, Bearded Chimera

Round, carved gamepiece featuring the image of a figure in armor sitting on top of and stabbing a winged creature with a beard.

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Fragment of a gaming piece with male slaying beast, possibly Hercules and the Erymanthian boar, zigzag pattern with incised circles in border

Fragment of circular gaming piece carved in elephant ivory in high relief. Standing male figure wearing knee-length robe holds sword in right hand and stabs inverted beast in the chest. Forelegs of beast end in hooves; head of beast characterized by large eye and pronounced nostril. Left arm of figure and rear half of the beast missing. Border contains zigzag pattern with bead motif.

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Tahmina Comes to Rustam, from the Shahnama of Firdausi

Timurid miniature from the Shiraz and Timurid schools, ca. 1460. The painting is done in ink, opaque watercolor and gold leaf on paper. The scene depicts <em>Tahmina Comes to Rustam </em>from the Shahnama of Firdausi, the Persian book of kings.

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Star-shaped tile with molded floral design

This star-shaped ceramic tile is decorated with floral patterns and shapes. This kind of tile seems to be very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries of the Iranian Islamic world. The relief decoration is moulded and unglazed while the ground is glazed in blues with black underglaze and covered with a clear overglaze.

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Interior of a Guardroom

Groups of men gamble, smoke, and drink in a dark guardroom. In the left foreground a seated man wearing a red sash lights his white clay pipe, while his companion pauses his smoking to listen to a man standing next to him. The red of the smoker's sash is repeated in the flag and fabrics strewn about in the right foreground, which form part of a still-life of weapons, musical instruments, and glinting armor heaped together against the wall. Between these brightly lit foreground vignettes the scene recedes into the darkened interior where a group of five men gather about a table to gamble.

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Vanitas (Still Life), with globe, skull, candle, tazza, and covered cup

This remarkable still life depicts a table crowded with, among other things, a gilded covered goblet, a wide saucer-shaped silver tazza, a celestial globe painted with images of the constellations, a skull wearing a laurel wreath, and an extinguished candle, all rendered in exquisite detail with careful attention paid to the effects of light and texture. While the arrangement of objects may appear casual, the composition is artfully balanced along two diagonal axes centered on the two cups that lie crossed on the table. The repetition of ovoid shapes throughout the painting and the monochrome tonality with its restricted range of hues and values, a hallmark of Heda's style, assures the seamless integration of the sundry objects into a unified whole.<br />

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Star-shaped tile with phoenix among clouds

Accession Number
1960/1.132

Title
Star-shaped tile with phoenix among clouds

Artist(s)
Iranian

Artist Nationality
Iranian

Object Creation Date
late 13th century - mid 14th century

Medium & Support
fritware, blue & turquoise underglaze painting, brown overglaze lustre painting

Dimensions
8 1/16 in. ( 20.5 cm )

Credit Line
Museum purchase

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Primary Object Type
tile

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Islamic (culture or style)
ceramics (object genre)
clouds
phoenixes
tile (materials)

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4 Related Resources

Arts from Persia and Iran
(Part of: Ancient and Classical Civilizations)

Visual Cultures of Islam - Ceramics
(Part of: Visual Cultures of Islam )

Winter Break SC 2018
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)

W19 Knysh - ISLAM 216 / MIDEAST 216 / RELIGION 204 - Introduction to Islam

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