WIT AND WINE: A New Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics From the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation 23 February - 19 May 2002

  INTRODUCTION

Wit and Wine: A New Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics, from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, is the first major exhibition of ancient Iranian ceramics in over a decade.  The exhibition features 45 extraordinary pieces that illustrate the 5,000-year ceramic tradition that flourished in ancient, pre-Islamic, Iran until 100 BCE.

  THE EXHIBITION

The beautiful, technically sophisticated, and often-amusing ceramics of ancient Iran demonstrate a rich yet little known tradition comparable to pre-Columbian, Chinese and Greek achievements, establishing ancient Iranian pottery as one of the great ceramic traditions.

The jugs, jars, beakers and spouted and shaped vessels in the exhibition were used for holding, pouring and drinking liquids, especially wine.  Wit and Wine explores how ancient Iranian potters made and decorated these vessels with high quality of craftsmanship and design, and often with a unique sense of humor.  Many pieces are shaped like animals or are painted with animal motifs.  Interpretations of wild and domesticated animals show elegant deer, powerful rams and amusing goats.  Some pieces were created to serve specific functions, such as cosmetic containers, some vessels were made to look like metal, and others are purely sculptural forms.

Included in the exhibition are an extraordinary ceramic head and neck of a bull, a vessel in the form of a seated camel, a stag-head rhyton (drinking horn), a vessel with a deer's head spout, a vessel in the form of a stag, a spouted vessel in the shape of a bull, and a delightful vessel with two feet. Some examples are provided below.

	HEAD AND NECK OF BULL. (52K) 1000-600 BC. Height - 12.875 inches.
	GLOBULAR JAR. (47K) 1000-650 BC. Height - 13.5 inches.
	SPOUTED VESSEL WITH HANDLE AND PAINTED DECORATION. (231K) 800-600 BC. Height - 8.5 inches.
	SPOUTED VESSEL IN THE FORM OF A BULL. (53K) 1200-800 BC. Height - 11.125 inches.
	BEAKER WITH GOATS. (66K) Ca. 3500 BC. Height - 6.31 inches. Wild bezoar goats, which live in the highland regions of Iran, are probably the animals depicted here. The meaning of the "skidding" posture is unknown.
	BOOT-SHAPED DRINKING CUP. (35K) 800-600 BC. Height - 12.25 inches. Drinking from this cup requires care. If tipped the wrong way, liquid remains briefly in the toe, and then splatters the drinker's face.
	STAG-HEAD RHYTON. (52K) 1000-550 BC. Height - 13.25 inches. The owner of this vessel was probably a successful hunter and ruler.
	SPOUTED STAG VESSEL. (40K) 1000-550 BC. Height - 12 inches. Both the large red deer and the smaller roe deer still inhabit northern Iran, the likely place of origin of this vessel. In many ancient cultures, deer represented virility and agility.
	CAMEL VESSEL. (50K) 250 BC-AD 224. Height - 8.25 inches. Camels were vitally important on the trade routes which crossed Iran. The famed Silk Road made possible the flow of goods between China and Europe for hundreds of years.
	TWIN-SPOUTED VESSEL. (54K) 250-100 BC. Height - 13.125 inches. The handles are shaped like mountain goats. The twin spouts are at the bottom of the vessel, so the server had to use a finger of each hand to cover the spout and release it when pouring.

	VESSEL WITH TWO HUMAN-LIKE FEET AND TWO HANDLES. 1000-800 BC. Height - 19 inches.
Side View (34K)		Front View (38K)

CURATOR AND SPONSORS

• CURATOR:  The curator of the exhibition is Trudy S. Kawami, Ph.D.

Trudy S. Kawami, Director of Research for the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, received her Ph.D. in art history and archaeology from Columbia University, where she specialized in the art of the Ancient Near East.  She carried out research in Turkey, Iran, and Israel, and in major European museums.  The author of Monumental Art of the Parthian Period in Iran (Leiden: 1987), Dr. Kawami has published numerous articles and lectures frequently.  She currently teaches "Art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt" at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  Iran, which she first visited in 1964, is of particular interest to her because of its location on the Silk Route, which linked Rome and China.



• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:




The exhibition is organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York.  Arthur M. Sackler, M.D. (1913-1987), a research psychiatrist, medical publisher, connoisseur, and collector of art, established the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in 1965 to make his extensive art collections accessible to the public.  The Foundation collection has more than 900 works of art, including Chinese ritual bronzes and ceramics, Buddhist stone sculpture, and the renowned Chu Silk Manuscript, the oldest existing Chinese written document.



• SPONSORS:

- Aletha and Clayton Brodine Museum Fund

- Persian Galleries

EXHIBITION CATALOG

A catalog of the exhibition is available in the McClung Museum Shop.

EXHIBITION ARCHIVE

The Website versions of other McClung Museum special exhibits are available at our Exhibition Archive.

  SELECTED WEB RESOURCES

	Art of Pottery in Iran Salam Iran (Embassy of Iran in Ottawa)
	Arthur M. Sackler Presented by Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler
	Farhangsara Iranian Cultural Website
	Iransaga Persian History and Culture

McClung Homepage		Exhibition Archive Page