The Open court (1887) (14589486730)

Identifier: opencourt47920caru (find matches)
Title: The Open court
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Carus, Paul, 1852-1919 Open Court Publishing company, Chicago
Subjects: Religion Religion and science
Publisher: Chicago : The Open Court Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Digitizing Sponsor: CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois



Text Appearing Before Image:
in in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chineseceramic fashions enriched Persian faience with a number of impor-tant elements, while in the seventeenth century a crowd of Chinesepotters were brought to Persia to expound to adept pupils the artof blue and white. But all that Persia borrowed, even in these fields,was promptly and thoroughly fused with the national style, so thatit became a true expression of her own artistic individuality. Ingeneral, foreign elements did not linger on in Persian art. but werespeedilv absorbed or rejected. It could not be otherwise with an artof such dominant personality, in which consistency and integritycounted for so much. There were at work in Persia none of the sacerdotal and cere-monial motives that played such an important part in the creationof fine vessels in Greece, China, and in medieval Europe. But art lln his article on the relation between Chinese and Persian ceramics.in the forthcoming Survey of Persian Art, Oxford University Press.
Text Appearing After Image:
CUP OF PAINTED EARTHENWARE Rayy, Twelfth Century (Collection of Mrs. John D. Mcllhenny, Philadelphia) THE POTTERS ART IN PERSIA 33 and life were never separated in Persia; there was no distinctionbetween fine and applied, major and minor arts, so that the varietyof purposes for which the vessels were created and their intimatedependence on the every-day life may have been a source of artis-tic integrity. Moreover, the Persian potters succeeded to an ancientheritage of dignified and expressive contours which dated back atleast to the polished gray earthenware of the second millenium B.C.Thus the Asterabad finds, which Dr. Wulsin dates around 2000 B.C.,yielded many flasks, ewers, and goblets of this kind, some of sur-prisingly powerful shapes, others of extraordinary elegance, all de-cisive and robust. And finally, since fine taste, a passion for per-fection, and a belief in the naturalness and importance of beautywere taken for granted, artistic achievement of a high order wasinevitabl