Bath Pail (Satl)
Details
- Author / creator
- Iran, Isfahan, Safavid period (1501-1722)
- Object type
- Metalwork
- Date or period
- c. 1580–1610
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 17 cm; Diameter of base: 11 cm; Diameter of rim: 16.8 cm
- Maker or workshop
- Iran, Isfahan, Safavid period (1501-1722)
- Period / style
- Safavid period
- Place of origin
- Iran
- Acquisition method
- Donation
- Credit line
- Gift of the Friends of the Ashcombe Museum, 1969
About this object
Building on the tradition of ancient Roman baths, the hammam (public bath) was, and still is, an integral part of social life in the Islamic world. This pail was used to carry bathing equipment for a wealthy individual from their home to the hammam. It is decorated with an interlacing geometric design with a central band of repeating animals. Bathing was a popular theme with Iranian poets. On this piece, verses by the celebrated poet Jami (died 1492) relay the story of a youth inquiring as to why the hammam brings so much joy. An elder responds, “The secret is that the bather has nothing of the trappings of this world / But a bathing-bowl and towel—and even those belong to others.”
Materials and technique
Cast brass, turned, engraved, inlaid with black compound (niello)
Signature and marks
The inscriptions on the pail are in the curvilinear script known as nasta'liq.: Upper band: At the breath of dawn [my Beloved] came from her house toward the Bath,/ A thousand hearts became dust on the road beneath her steps./ From seeing Your face, the bath-house day and night/ [Has] a thousand colored eyes on the door and ceiling./ As soon as my Moon [-faced Beloved] comes into the Bath,/ My eye becomes this bathing cup, and by eyebrow its handle.; Persian verses about Bathing: Lower band: I remember an old master saying in the Bathhouse:/ One day a young person asked of an old man:/ "What is the secret that makes anyone who sets foot in the bathhouse,/ Find his saddened heart opened up to joy?"/ He said: "The secret is that the bather has nothing of the trappings of this world/ But a bathing-bowl and towel -- and even those belong to others.
