Brooklyn Museum: Collections: Islamic Art

Molded Tile with Standing Figures. Iran, Qajar period, mid-19th century. Ceramic, composite white body, underglaze painting in place, aubergine, pink, turquoise, yellow, and cobalt blue, 11 1/2 x 13 7/8 x 1 3/16 in. (29.2 x 35.1 x 2.84 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchase made with funds by the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 1991.2

This molded tile depicts four grandees associated with the court of Nasir al-Din Shah (reigned 1848–96) of the Qajar Dynasty (1785–1925). They stand at attendance with their hands discreetly folded, demonstrating the formality of court ritual during the period. Used as part of a decorative ensemble in a princely mansion or palace, this tile represents the high level of technical skill that ceramic artists achieved during the Qajar period. The figures are rendered in grisaille, a technique in which shades of black, white, and gray are used exclusively, and they hover amid floral sprays and individual blossoms on a monochrome cobalt-blue background. The color bleeds very little into the black-and-white figures, indicating the artist's control in glazing and firing processes.

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