POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Frieze tile کاشی قاجاری

Object No. A4482

This frieze tile was handcrafted in early 20th-century Persia (Iran), under the patronage of a wealthy family by one of the master tile makers (kashigar) of the cities of Isfahan or Shiraz known for this genre of tile production since the 15th century. During the Qajar era (1789-1925), many elites and aristocrats had a strong interest in decorating their palaces, castles, and houses with similar wall tiles depicting famous Persian tales and heroic stories. As a result, a range of pictorial frieze tiles found their way into the lives of Qajar elites, and consequently similar high-quality crafts were adopted for the Persian market. This rectangular glazed tile is painted in cobalt-blue, turquoise, manganese and pink with a black outline on a white ground and was made for the decoration of the wall of an internal reception hall, the external wall of a castle or the house of an aristocratic Qajar family. This Qajar tile depicts a young Persian prince, who while horse-riding is feeding a simorgh (phoenix), a famous Persian mythical bird, which is swooping over his head. Illustrated in a beautiful landscape including Persian flora and fauna and with pavilions in the background, the prince is on his personal journey through different cities to find answers to his life questions. Borrowed from one of the famous Persian fairy-tales, this particular scene depicts the prince feeding the simorgh with a piece of flesh from his own leg. Naturally, the magical bird realises why the taste of this meat differs from a normal one and therefore keeps it in his beak to heal the prince later. During the Qajar era, this genre of tiles was a hallmark of Persian Islamic art, widely used for utilitarian purposes, mostly in the decoration of royal architecture. An important innovation was the usage of a series of heroic and mythological scenes which were connected to Persian literature and national identity in such applied arts and crafts. Dr Pedram Khosronejad, Curator of Persian Arts, 2021