Material Object
The artifact is a circular pottery bowl that was made in the Samanid dynasty in the 10th century of present-day Iran. The British Museum states that this bowl was made in Nishapur in the Khurasan province of Iran and is 19.50 centimeters in diameter. The bowl was slipped and glazed. Prior to glazing, it was inscribed in Arabic with the kufic technique which reads “Livelihood is distributed [by God among people] and greed…”. Kufic is a calligraphy technique used in Islamic art and texts. The description of the bowl is slightly confusing, but one way it can be interpreted is that the clay is red and it was slipped with black and white slip and then glazed.
The Samanid dynasty was from 874 AD to 999 AD (Volov, 107). The Samanid was a great era and renaissance, as “the Persian flavour of this renaissance is evident in the growth of a new Persian literature which recaptures the glory of ancient Iran in history and in legend, culminating in the great epic Firdawsi the Shah-Nameh'' (Volov, 107). The pottery noticeably lacks figures and uses the Arabic language instead (Volov, 107), comparing this to ancient Greek pottery where there were shapes and figures displayed on the pottery. This was done as a result of the Umayyad practice of avoiding religious people and places of worship on art (Volov, 107). The use of Arabic is important as it is the “language of the Qur’an and the Islamic state” (Volov, 107). As seen on the bowl, the inscription “participate[s] in the total decorative and effectiveness of the object” (Volov, 108). It was common for the inscriptions on Samanid pottery to include aphorisms, which praised moral qualities and virtues, such as patience, intelligence, knowledge, and generosity (Volov, 108).
There was a preference of open bowls and dishes amongst the potters as they would rather work with the interior of the ware than the exterior, as the exterior proposed more design challenges because of the circular shape (Hillenbrand, 62).Some bowls, usually the small, shallow bowls, had small patterns added to the surface of the bowl with a few brushstrokes (Grube, 210).
The city of Nishapur, during the ninth and tenth century, became an important cultural centre where they produced a wide variety of pottery (Grube, 213). During this time, the potters figured out underglazing, which is a way to paint beneath the glaze without having any designs destroyed or damaged in the firing process (Grube, 213-214); it is still used today. Completed pieces were of high aesthetic quality, suggesting that they were made for those with high status, yet the quantity of found sherds contrast this idea (Hillenbrand, 58). There is also indication that there was a high level of literacy, or inclination to literacy, among the low status population (Hillenbrand, 58).
A similar object is a pottery bowl from Nishapur in the 10th century. Here, the 8.50 inch diameter bowl is written in floriated kufic with the inscription of “The noblest of riches is the abandonment of desire”. This means “the thing that is worth most in life is to desire nothing”. This contrasts with greed and the monstrosity of greed as greed is the intense and selfish desire to possess something more than needed. Greed is most easily seen when equality and comparing is involved. This relates to the first artifact as the first says “Livelihood is distributed [by God among people] and greed…”. Greediness with your livelihood can cause problems amongst others. Ergo, to desire nothing, or the bare minimum in order to survive, you will be rich with what you have. Once again, the inscription decorates the bowl and has wise words that praises morals and virtues (Volov, 108).
The third artifact is an engraving by two Dutch artists from 1558. The artwork, titled “Avarice (Avaritia) from the series The Seven Deadly Sins” depicts what greed looks like from a different time period and different place. The latin wording on the bottom roughly translates to “Does the greedy miser ever possess fear or shame?” (Avaritia (Avarice), n.d.). This is similar to the two pottery bowls as both bowls mention or relate to greed in the work itself. The lady in the centre with the coins in her lap displays greed in the simplest form - taking more than you can hold. The art also shows greed in the background, with the characters breaking roofs and objects. This relates to the quote on the bottom; no fear or shame for damaging property and those what is not yours just to possess it. The faces and masks in the piece have an unsettling look, with some being monster-like. This furthers the idea that greed is a monstrous trait and impacts the way people are perceived.