Kubachi Dish

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Probably Tabriz, Iran, circa 1600
28cm diameter
Stock no.: A4263

A young maiden with almond-shaped eyes, a beauty mark on her left cheek, wearing a flower print dress and a loose headdress with black curls hanging down each side of her face; she is represented in a landscape of floral motifs. The rim of the dish is decorated with a fish-scale motif border. This polychrome dish is painted with cobalt blue, green, red and ochre and belongs to the ceramic group of Kubachi wares. The representation of bust portraiture (i.e. top-half of the figure) depicted amongst floral sprays and vegetation was popularised during the Safavid period, probably as a result of the cosmopolitan exchanges with the Ottomans. Other examples of similar Kubachi dishes are in The Louvre, Paris, Accession Number Ucad 27780, The Harvard University Art Museum, Accession Number 1934.47 and The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Accession Number AKM691.