Mina'i ware
[3] The ceramic body of white-ish fritware or stonepaste is fully decorated with detailed paintings using several colours, usually including figures.
As in other periods and regions when overglaze enamels were used, the purpose of the technique was to expand the range of colours available to painters beyond the very limited group that could withstand the temperature required for the main firing of the body and glaze,[8] which in the case of these wares was about 950 °C.
It is known these existed, but no illustrated manuscripts or murals from the period before the Mongol conquest have survived, leaving the painting on the pottery as the best evidence of that style.
[13] Sherds of mina'i ware have been excavated from "most urban sites in Iran and Central Asia" occupied during the period,[14] although most writers believe that nearly all production was in Kashan.
[23] In the Ilkhanate, overglaze painting continued in a rare new style called lajvardina wares, but these featured patterns rather than figures, with deep underglaze blue and gold leaf fixed in a second firing.
The Persian name refers to lapis lazuli, though the usual cobalt blue was used.,[24][25][26][27] The study of mina'i ware is complicated by a lot of excessive restoration and embellishment by dealers after the pieces attracted the attention of collectors, mostly in the West, from the late 19th century onwards.
[28] For example, the catalogue entry for a bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the Robert Lehman collection, records that "Extensive restoration has interfered with the inscription in certain areas, and nearly every part of the interior decoration has been subjected to heavy overpainting".
Images of enthroned rulers flanked by attendants are standard, as are figures of riders, who are often engaged in princely pursuits such as hunting and falconry.
The outside of raised bowls is usually not painted with images, although some have relatively simple floral or abstract decoration, but inscriptions of text running around the piece are common.
[34] A well-known low bowl in the Freer Gallery of Art (reconstructed from fragments) is exceptional, both in its size of 47.8 cm across and in its design; it is the largest known plate in the mina'i technique.
[40] This piece may well follow a depiction in a wall painting or other medium,[41] as may a "celebrated" beaker, now also in the Freer, which is the fullest example of an iconographic scheme taken from the Persian literary classics, in this case, the Shahnameh.
[42] Mina'i ware began to be made when Persia was, in theory, part of the Seljuk Empire, whose ruling dynasty and top elite were ethnically Turkish.
Firstly, the fritware body and the glazes used on it were greatly improved, allowing thinner walls and some translucency of Chinese porcelain, which was already imported into Persia and represented the main competition for local fine wares.
[48] Though luxurious and considered pottery, the new Persian lustre and mina'i wares may have represented a cost-saving alternative for vessels using precious metals, either in solid form or as inlays on brass or bronze.
