Out of place : the historiography of the epigraphic ceramics found at Nishapur

In 1937, the Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled to the public a new gallery in the Near Eastern Department. This gallery contained the archeological finds from Nishapur, an ancient city in Iran that served as a major cultural center during the 9th and 10th century. Among the objects displayed in the exhibition were multiple black-on-white epigraphic wares, relegated to their own special vitrine at the entrance to the new gallery. The blessings, well-wishes, and proverbs inscribed on the ceramics against their white backgrounds instantly appealed to the archeological team from the Museum, with curator and Iranian Expedition leader Charles Wilkinson declaring that the epigraphic wares represented the most attractive example of eastern Iranian pottery. This assessment of the epigraphic wares represents the initial preference for the ceramics due to their modern aesthetics. Scholars like those at the Museum saw the qualities of harmony and decorative restraint represented in the Nishapur epigraphic wares as evidence that Islamic art – specifically, art from Iran – was a precursor for European and American modernism. The Islamic gallery curators’ fondness for these objects points to the way in which the aesthetic values of 20th century Western audiences influenced the reception and display of Islamic art objects by highlighting those that adhered to a particular visual criterion. In this case, we see the objects being prized for their so-called restraint and for the absence of geometric and floriated patterns associated with Islamic art. The epigraphic wares’ display history is echoed in the current Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, suggesting that this preference never subsided. By examining the historiography of the display of the Nishapur epigraphic wares, we can see both how the initial choices made by curators perpetuated the idea that the epigraphic wares are exceptions to the canon of Islamic art, and how the objects were manipulated into Eurocentric art history.Art Histor