An Iznik Tile with Red Background

End of 16th century Turkey

Ceramic with underglaze decoration

24.3cm high, 12cm wide

Provenance: Belgian private collection

A rare Iznik border tile made of white paste and decorated over a white slip in coral red, green and cobalt blue with black outlining under a transparent glaze. The pattern of cloud scrolls linked by clips is reserved on a coral red ground and is outlined in black. Narrow cobalt borders run along the vertical edges of the tile.

A.S.

Comparative material:

A tile with the same design and colours can be seen in Bilgi, Hulya. The Ömer Koç Iznik Collection Istanbul, 2015, p. 140.

Tiles with this design but with the colours in inverse can be seen in the Louvre (AD5967.23, AD5967.24) and a similar design executed in blue and white is to be seen in The Ömer Koç Iznik Collection p. 141 as well as on the façade of the Circumcision Chamber at the Topkapi Palace.

Iznik Tile

c. 1540-1550

Ottoman Turkey

Ceramic with underglaze decoration

19.6cm high, 26.5cm wide

Provenance: Scandinavian private collection before 1965

This fritware tile is painted underglaze in dark and light cobalt blue and turquoise īslīmī patterns and outlined in dark cobalt blue. The top panel has a band of white flower-and-leaf motifs embellished with turquoise dots, while the bottom panel has blue flower-and-leaf motifs strung together by dark blue spiralling branches. The cartouche in the middle of the bottom panel has a turquoise outline and light blue background, completed with white flower-and-leaf motifs.

This item was part of the tile revetments that once decorated a bathhouse in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul, which came to be known as the Çinili Hamam (the Tiled Bathhouse). The bathhouse was commissioned by the Ottoman admiral Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa (better known as Barbarossa), the Ottoman Empire’s famous naval commander who carried out a series of successful campaigns against the Spanish and their allies in the 1530s-1540s. As a grand admiral (kapudan-ı deryâ), Barbarossa had access to state resources for realising his building projects. For example, he was able to employ the famous court architect Sinan (d.1588) to design the bathhouse, and the tiles used for the building were probably designed by the royal workshop. The bathhouse was sold off in the nineteenth century, and during restoration work, the remaining tiles were sold to a dealer called Ludvic Lupti, probably in 1874, who resold them in Paris.

Using tile revetments to decorate buildings became fashionable in the mid-sixteenth century for Ottoman elites. The intricate designs of tile patterns were made to emulate manuscript paintings, meant to be seen from a close distance. With its origins in fourteenthfifteenth century Iran, the īslīmī pattern used for this tile is one of the oldest decorative schemes for manuscript illuminations. This tile is in the same style as a group of tiles now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which have all been identified as coming from the Çinili Hamam S.L.

Comparative material:

Victoria & Albert Museum (221-1896)

Reference:

‘Tile 1540-1550’, Victoria & Albert Museum, 24 June 2009. Walter B. Denny, Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004, p. 79.