14 F L O W E R S A N D L E AV E S O N S C R O L L I N G V I N E S Northern India (Mughal, probably Lahore or Kashmir), 17th century Height: 19.2 cm Width: 17.6 cm
A tile in the cuerda seca technique painted in warm, mellow shades of bright apple green, orange, aubergine and purplish blue against a buttery yellow ground, highlighted by white and outlined by the dark manganese brown of the glaze technique. The lyrical design consists of two gently scrolling vines bearing flowers and variegated leaves. The vines wind languidly into the centre of the tile where they do not meet but are joined by a rectangular strapwork cartouche, ornamented by buds along its length and knop finials at the ends. The cartouche introduces an architectural element and a hint of formal order into the floriated garden scene, as if nature is controlled in its abundance by the tending hand of the gardener. The aubergine vine and calyx on the left of the design terminates with a luxuriant flower with tricoloured petals, saffron on top and aubergine underneath. The petals have a distinctive white margin, which is the white slip with which the earthenware body is covered before the application of other colours. The technique is to apply the coloured glazes just short of the edges of the petals outlined by the cuerda seca, so that a soft marginal halo effect is achieved by the still visible white slip. The robust solidity of the petals evaporates, and in its place lingers the fragile fragrance of soft, gossamer blossoms. The combination of colours and the white
outlines contour the petals to give them a concave cup shape. The vine emerges on the lower left from a soft cluster of petals. The short vine on the right links two serrated split-leaf palmettes. The upper palmette is in apple green while the lower has two bifurcated fronds in saffron rising from a double trefoil calyx of inner saffron and outer aubergine edged with white. This tile relates closely in design, colours, technique and stylistic treatment of the flowers and leaves, including the distinctive white outline of the petals, to a group of tiles in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London said to come from the tomb of the saint Shah Madani at But Kadal, Zabidal, near Srinagar in Kashmir. The tiles were acquired from Mr Frederick H. Andrews in 1923. He had been living in Srinagar, where he was the Director of the Technical Institute of Kashmir, and wrote to the museum in 1922 offering to sell his collection before he left that year to return to the United Kingdom. He said that the tiles were part of the decoration of the Madani mosque and tomb but the Victoria and Albert Museum believe that though the tiles were installed in a Kashmiri monument, they were probably made in Lahore. The tiles at the tomb of Shah Madani show similarities of design and colour to the present example. According to Rosemary Crill, the tomb dates from the mid fifteenth century, but it was refurbished by a Mughal nobleman during the reign of Shah Jahan, when tiles in the cuerda seca technique were installed.1 Thirteen tiles from Shah Madani in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum were exhibited and published in Robert
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Skelton et al, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, 1982, pp. 26-27, no. 5. A group of thirteen closely related Mughal tiles, also from Shah Madani, forming part of the donation of Jean et Krishnâ Riboud in the Musée Guimet, Paris, is published in Amina Okada, L’Inde des Princes: La donation et Jean et Krishnâ Riboud, 2000, pp. 128-133. The Riboud tiles at the Guimet have designs closely related to the present tile as well as to the group at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with white margins to the flowers and bi-coloured treatment of leaves. A cuerda seca tile at the British Museum in London is also clearly from the same group as it exemplifies characteristics of the Shah Madani tiles from both the other museum collections. Like our tile, it has a yellow ground and floral motifs with white edges emerging from a spiralling vine (1856,1216.1). This tile was given to the British Museum in 1856 by the artist William Carpenter, who travelled to and lived in India for six or seven years in the 1850s. The British Museum website informs us that this is one of three tiles found in Kashmir by Carpenter and acquired from him as a gift by the museum in 1856. This information corroborates the Kashmiri information provided to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Frederick Andrews and confirms the site of Shah Madani proposed by all the museums. Reference: 1. See Robert Skelton et al, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, 1982, pp. 26-27, nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, for a discussion of Mughal tiles in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
