Day 161 - Iranian Jonah

June 17, 2019

Gallery 455 is a large space focused on objects -- largely ceramics and manuscripts, but also metalwork bowls and ewers, textiles, and chain-mail armor -- from Iran and central Asia. I'm especially drawn to the ceramics - but then, I have always thought of these as among the greatest glories of Islamic art. One striking piece is a large mihrab, perhaps 10 feet high and 7 feet wide,  from a madrasa in Isfahan, made in the 1350s and composed of hundreds, if not thousands, of cut tile pieces in shades of white, turquoise, dark blue, and gold worked into floral and geometric designs and inscriptions. It's a great coup for the Met's collection. I hear a docent say that the Met purchased it, presumably because the madrasa needed money, and it's comforting to think that it wasn't simply acquired through plunder. Still, one wonders whether it should be in Isfahan. On the other hand, given the current saber-rattling going on between the U.S. and Iran, it also serves to remind viewers who are likely never to visit that country of the high level of culture that Iran had achieved at such an early point.  

I chose today's object because it was so unexpected.  Dating from about 1400 and perhaps 24 inches wide and 16 inches high, it's an illustration in ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper that depicts a nude, bearded man emerging from the mouth of a big fish. Over the fish flies an angel with purple, blue, and red robes and polychrome wings, who with his outstretched arms proffers  an item of clothing to the naked man. "Jonah," I say to myself -- and it is! I read that the story of Jonah appears in the Qu'ran and was popular in the Muslim world and  frequently illustrated in manuscripts of world history.  The size of this example, though, suggests that it wasn't part of a manuscript, but rather, may have been used as an adjunct to story-telling. While the forms are simple and reduced - Jonah's head is way out of proportion to the rest of his body- other elements, such as the patterns and folds in the angel's robes and the scales on the fish, are shown in considerable detail. Jonah's arms are covered with inscriptions (although they could also pass as body hair), and I wonder what they say. Probably something like, " I'm Jonah" and "Blessed be Allah for saving me."