Safavid potters created brilliantly coloured ceramics. The effect was often achieved with glazes of a single colour. Many of these wares have moulded or carved decoration. The most unusual appears on bottles made in the 17th century, which bear scenes of people and animals.
A second technique used coloured slips, or liquid clay, under the glaze. Potters sometimes carved the slip away to reveal the white body beneath.In other cases, they added designs
The Safavid dynasty was established in 1501 by Shah Isma‘il. The origins was a Sufi religious order, and they established Twelver Shi‘ism as the religion of Iran. A new capital was founded at Isfahan in 1597 by Shah ‘Abbas I (1587–1629). The city was transformed into a showpiece of Safavid architecture of the 1600s, much of it has survived to this day.
Many of Iran’s finest mosques, madrasas and palaces were built then. Tilework was given new emphasis, using brilliant colours and elegant designs. The displays in this gallery show examples of this Safavid architectural tilework.
The first Safavid capital was Tabriz, followed by Qazvin and Isfahan from the reign of Shah ‘Abbas I. The Safavid dynasty provided a strong sense of Iranian identity, especially by adopting Twelver Shi‘ism as the religion of the state. This legacy
サファヴィー朝と青花(Blue-and-white)」について解説。 「The Safavids and Blue-and-white
A major concern of Iranian potters in the Safavid period was to make ceramicsin the style of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. The Chinese wares continued to be imported in great quantities, first by the Portuguese and then, from about 1620, by the Dutch and the British.
Some of the Iranian wares are close imitations of Chinese originals. The Iranian potterseven copy the Chinese maker’s marks that appear on the base.」
This carpet is one of a group in which the motifs are organised in a lattice pattern onseveral levels. As vases often occur in these designs, they are sometimes called “vase carpets”. The group’s weave of cotton, silk and wool is also distinctive.
This example belonged to the British designer William Morris (1834–96), who used it as a source for his own work.
Cotton warps (Z3/45), silk and cotton wefts, and wool pile
Bethlehem is famous for tahriri (couching), an embroidery technique where gold or silver cord is coiled on the fabric in swirling patterns. Particularly during the British Mandate period (1918–48), woven cottons were imported from England. The maker of this jacket used a British houndstooth fabric for its lining, as a sign of high status and high fashion.
Metallic thread and cotton cord on velvet, cotton lining
This reproduction shows part of the ornamental frieze near the top of this display (2). The potter made the pattern by carving into the earthenware tile itself. The tile wasthen coated with glaze and fired.
Use your fingers to see how deeply carved the tiles are. The pattern is 20 mm deep in places.」
・書体はナスフ体的で、先ほどの「وفوق كل ذي علم عليم」 (知識の上にさらに知る御方がいる)などと系統の句。
・背景は唐草で埋め尽くされ、文字と文様が一体化。
上部右(大きな正方形パネルの一部)
・星形・多角形が組み合わされた幾何学タイル模様。
・これは「無限の秩序」「神の完全性」を象徴。
「Tomb of Buyanquli Khan
At Bukhara in Uzbekistan, a magnificent domed mausoleum was erected over the grave of a Muslim descendant of the great Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. For a time this man, Buyanquli Khan, was the puppet ruler of much of Central Asia, but in 1358, when he tried to assert his own authority, he was assassinatedby a local warlord.
Buyanquli’s tomb was built in a cemetery on the outskirts of Bukhara. The entire building was covered in tiles, inside and out.
The tiles were deeply carved with inscriptions and other ornament, and covered with coloured glazes before the final firing. This impressive technique was used in Central Asia only for a brief period, from around 1350 to the early 15th century.」
Sculpture in South Asia is primarily a religious art.
The three great religions — Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism — offer salvation through escape from the cycle of death and rebirth. Images, as a focus of meditation and worship, play an important role in this process. Some also have a protective function.
Stone images of gods and saviours began to appear about 2000 years ago. Stone reliefs were carved for temples and other religious buildings. At the temples, as became more elaborate, sculptures came to line the walls as well as occupying the inner sanctuary. There were also bronze icons, placed in temples and household shrines, and carried in processions.
Hindus believe that during worship the deity actually inhabits the image. They bathe, dress, garland and offer food to their images, giving them a very different appearance from what you see here. Although Jain worship includes some similar actions, these are simply to focus the worshipper’s mind and help him or her on thespiritual path.」
Buddhists aim to end suffering by extinguishing desire. After achieving enlightenment, it is possible to enter nirvana and escape the cycle of death and rebirth.
The religion originated in India where the historical Buddha (about 485–405 BC) discovered and taught the way to enlightenment. Buddhists also began to worship past and future Buddhas, as well as bodhisattvas, who postpone their own nirvana to help others attain enlightenment.
Buddhist sculpture comes from monasteries, temples and sacred relic mounds. Some of the monasteries were housed in huge, specially excavated cave complexes.」
The historical Buddha was called Shakyamuni (‘Sage of the Shakya clan’). He abandoned his princely life to seek a way to escape the cycle of death and rebirth.
Here he is shown just before his enlightenment. Seated in meditation, he calls the earth to witness his successful resistance to the temptations of the evil god Mara. After achieving enlightenment and teaching his new way, he entered nirvana.
Basalt
Eastern India (Patna District, Bihar)
Given by the Architectural Association Museum no. IM.112-1916」
Hinduism in southern India is conspicuous for its gigantic temple complexes, often forming the core of the city. Their architecture and sculpture are very distinct from those of the north. The deities can take different forms, and some are unique to the south.
The worship too is different. As well as the Sanskrit liturgy that originated in north India, there are hymns in local languages such as Tamil. These were composed from the 6th century onwards by revered poet-saints who instituted a new form of worship centred on love for the deity.」
European merchant-adventurers first came to India in the wake of Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the route around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. The Portuguese quickly set up trading posts first on the West coast of India and then in Bengal. Their main interest was in the spice trade between South-East Asia and Europe, which made use of Indian textiles largely as items of exchange for spices, but high-quality local textiles were also exported directly back to Portugal. Furniture, based on European styles but made with Indian materials, was produced by localcraftsmen both for export and for Portuguese communities in India.」
Islamic kingdoms emerged in the Indian subcontinent as early as the 8th century with the arrival of the military governors sent by the Muslim caliphs of Damascus. India became the empire from which Muslim control of the entire Indian subcontinent was established. In 1206, Delhi was taken and the first Muslim sultanate was established there. From Sind in the west to Bengal in the east. By 1335 most of the subcontinent, with the exception of the far south, was brought under the control of the Delhi Sultans. The fragile confederation proved ungovernable and quickly disintegrated into a series of independent Muslim states.
The courts of these Muslim rulers generated a distinctive style in the arts. Elements of the local Indian tradition, practised by local craftsmen whom the new rulers employed to design temples, were united with aspects of Islamic culture—most obviously, the styles prevailing in Iran. The resulting Sultanate style, preserved in painting and architecture, was a blend which reflected Iranian style through the prism of Indian traditions.」
In the late 17th century two-door cabinets replaced portable ‘fall-front’ cabinets as the type most usually produced in western India. This reflected a similar change in European cabinets, which increasingly became showpieces mounted on stands. Although the form of this cabinet is based on western models, its decoration derives from Mughal painting. The stand was made later, in England, and decorated in the Chinese style.
Kashmir shawls have a long history of courtly popularity. The Mughals strongly supported production and introduced the first floral motifs into shawl designs. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who annexed Kashmir in 1819, was said to line the interiors of tents with them. Kashmir shawls also enjoyed royal favour abroad. Several portraits of Empress Josephine of France feature her wearing a bright red Kashmir shawl of the same style as the one displayed here.
Muslin embellished with silver-gilt and beetle-wing cases
Bikaner, Rajasthan
c. 1855
Made of fine muslin, the jama was worn by men at many Indian courts from about the 1500s to the 1800s. This red jama is richly decorated with silver-gilt trimmings and pieces of emerald-green wing cases from Indian jewel beetles. An original label found inside suggests it once belonged to the Maharaja of Bikaner, a princely state in Rajasthan.
The Jagannatha Trio, comprising Jagannatha (Lord of the World), his older brother Balabhadra and little sister Subhadra are worshipped at the 12th-century temple of Jagannatha in Puri, Odisha. Jagannatha is a form of the Hindu god Krishna, so he is painted black to signify the dark colours associated with Krishna. The deities in the Puri temple have big circular eyes with red outlines, brilliantly evoked in the hypnotic gazes of the trio here.」
「MUHAMMAD ALI KHAN, NAWAB OF ARCOT AND THE CARNATIC
Oil on canvasby Tilly Kettleabout 1770
This painting is an early example of western- style portraiture at an Indian court. The artist Tilly Kettle was one of the first English painters in India. He depicts the pro-British Nawab of Arcot, a popular figure in Madras society. The ruler is shown dressed in lavish robes and jewels.」
Screen panels of pierced stone were a distinctive feature of Indian architecture, especially in the northern parts of the country. These marble examples are carved with alternating floral and non-figurative (arabesque) motifs. The screens may have been part of a balustrade on the outside of a building, such as on a terrace.」
There are rich traditions in South Asia of classical, folk and devotional music.
Indian classical music consists of a series of improvisations within ragas. These are melodic frameworks, each using certain notes and progressions and evoking a particular mood. Every performance is unique.
These 19th-century instruments are from the V&A collection. Some were acquired because of their beautiful decoration. Many of the instruments in the collection were transferred from London’s India Museum when it closed in 1879. The V&A acquired others from leading musicologists of the day, notably Carl Engel in 1882; and Rajah Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore, who gave a large collection in 1890. Several of these remarkable instruments are of an unusual or experimental nature.
The display formed part of a digital project ‘Musical Wonders of India’, created in partnership with Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust.
Mid–18th century ローブ 素材:絹(シルク)、絹糸および金属糸による刺繍 産地:インド、デカン地方 制作年代:18世紀中頃
(中央プレート)
CRADLE
Gold, set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds
Hyderabad, India
c. 1870 ゆりかご 素材:金(ゴールド)、ダイヤモンド・ルビー・エメラルドを装飾 産地:インド、ハイデラバード 制作年代:約1870年頃 寄贈:ハイデラバード藩王国 第7代ニザームより
協賛:ヘレン・ハムリン財団】
インドの衣装(黒地に花模様のローブ)と黄金のゆりかご(Cradle)。
「THE KINGDOM OF RANJIT SINGH
From 1792 until 1839 the Punjab was dominated by the remarkable personality of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a Sikh leader whose unique achievement was to weld the different communities of the Punjab into a powerful and stable nation. He employed European mercenary officers to train his army, with brilliant success. While extending his frontiers by conquest he skilfully avoided confrontation with the British, the river Sutlej being accepted as a boundary between his territory and theirs. On his death the kingdom fragmented and after protracted conflict the Punjab was annexed by the British in 1849.」
The first Sikh maharaja of the Punjab was famously modest in his personal appearance. However, he wanted his court setting to be as splendid as possible. The throne was made by Ranjit Singh’s leading goldsmith, probably after the Sikh army captured the important city of Multan (now in Pakistan) in 1818. Contemporary paintings of the throne show that each of the two projecting branches originally had a golden sphere. It was taken by the British from the Sikh treasury after they annexed the Punjab in 1849.」
This painting, shown in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886, is an example of the type of European academic painting being taught in the Schools of Art in India at the time.
It also serves as a documentary record of costume and jewellery of the region. The woman wears a full set of head, ear, nose, neck, arm, hand, ankle and foot jewellery, and a costume richly decorated with zardozi (gold wire/thread) embroidery.
By 1850 Britain had gained control of nearly two thirds of the subcontinent, and India had become vital to Britain’s world trading system. The direction of trade had changed: the export trade in Indian cloth had collapsed dramatically, even and once-proud markets had closed, unable to compete with machine-made goods from the mills of Manchester and Lancashire. Raw cotton was now being exported to Britain to be manufactured in the Lancashire mills. From the British point of view, India had to be largely self-financing to pay for its own administration, to provide cash to maintain an army which would ensure peace and stability. Extensive revolts in northern India in 1857, known as the Indian Mutiny (or the First War of Indian Independence) showed the fragility of British control. More than a third of India remained beyond British control. More than a third of India remained beyond British control in the princely states.
The British community in India was small in relation to the total population; the great majority were employed by government, over a half being in the army. The British were most visible in the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, where their architecture and institutions proclaimed British power and influence. Much of India remained untouched by British influence. There were changes, however, among the growing middle classes, that hinted by the mid-century that by 1900 the political movement that was to lead to the independence of the countries of South Asia was well under way.」