Iznik Dish

Second half of 16th century Ottoman Turkey

Ceramic decorated with underglaze polychrome

26cm diameter

Provenance: Prominent French private collection

The circular polychrome dish is painted with an asymmetrical composition of one central cobalt-blue saz leaf with meandering stems and foliage, red carnations, a blue tulip and a red tulip on a white ground. The central saz leaf is enhanced by bright tomato red, and extends into a second, smaller saz leaf at its tip. More peculiar is the cobalt blue flower with thin petals to the right hand side of the dish – this flower has not been identified as there is no comparative material. The rim is decorated with alternating red flowers and cobalt-blue pairs of tulips sprigs. The style of the rim can be compared to a series of dishes in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections (Bilgi, 2009; see pp. 267, 270,274 and 275). The reverse of the dish has a black, everted outline, with a flower motif alternating with a bunch of three flowers motif, all painted in cobalt blue and enhanced with turquoise. A hole is pierced in the foot of the dish for hanging. This type of dish, with depictions of various kinds of flowers and leaves principally in red, blue and turquoise, was developed in the 1570-80s by Kara Memi, an illuminator and the head of the workshop at the Ottoman court. From then on, floral designs with certain degrees of realism became the principal motifs of Ottoman art. S.L.

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