Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
43
Tile with composite flowers and saz leaves Turkey, Iznik, Ottoman period, c. 1585–95
Fritware painted with blue (cobalt), turquoise (copper), green (copper and iron), and red (iron) under clear lead alkali glaze
31.2 × 31 cm (12 5/16 × 12 3/16 in.)
2002.50.108
Production of ceramic tiles and vessels reached a peak under Ottoman court patronage in the sixteenth century. The court studio provided designs to semi-autonomous workshops in Iznik, which manufactured tiles for numerous large-scale imperial projects.
With its white ground and foliate decoration in brilliant cobalt blue, emerald green, turquoise, and slightly raised red, this square tile exemplifies the technical achievements of the second half of the century. The dominant motif is a composite flower, which alternates direction across the middle of the tile. Serrated leaves known as saz grow from the base of each palmette. Smaller bisected palmettes of a different form are horizontally positioned at the top and bottom edges of the tile. When this tile was juxtaposed with others of the same design, a continuous repeating pattern resulted.[1]
Identical tiles can now be seen under the pendentives on the north and south walls of the chamber of Sultan Murad III (r. 1574–95), built in 1578–79 in the harem of Topkapı Palace by the illustrious architect Sinan.[2] It is likely, however, that these tiles are not original to the room itself [3] but were made for a different part of the harem, either later in Murad’s reign[4] or during that of his successor Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603),[5] and were subsequently reinstalled in Murad’s chamber, perhaps after damage caused by a fire or an earthquake.[6] Stylistically similar tiles are found in their original location in the 1585–86 mosque of Ramazan Efendi in Istanbul.[7]
Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım
[1] A panel of these tiles, showing their continuous design, is in the Tareq Rajab Museum. See Fehérvári 2000, 314. Also see Rogers 2002, 196–97, cat. 133. Two smaller (25.4 × 25.4 cm) tiles with a very similar but asymmetrically placed design are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (447-1900 and 447A-1900).
[2] Necipoğlu 1991, 165–71.
[3] See Bilgi 2009, 204, for the original, smaller (25 × 25 cm) tiles covering the rest of the room.
[4] The contemporary Ottoman historian Selânikî mentions a tiled room, pools, and a bath rebuilt in the harem in 1585: see Selânikî 1989, 1:157.
[5] Additionally, eight tiled rooms and a bath were rebuilt in 1595, during the reign of Mehmed III: see Selânikî 1989, 2:490, 525, and especially 539.
[6] Restorations undertaken in the twentieth century did not include these walls: see Anhegger-Eyüboğlu, 1986, 81–86. I am thankful to Dr. Filiz Çağman, former director of the Topkapı Palace Museum, for discussing these tiles and their possible history within the palace.
[7] Bilgi 2009, 206.
