Page 237 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

genre, which developed fully by the 1540s, were applied to
ceramics by the middle of the sixteenth century.
Ottoman pottery produced during the first half of the fif-
teenth century was buff- or red-bodied and underglaze-
painted in blue, green, and sometimes purple. Tiles produced
in Bursa reveal the reddish body and employ cuerda seca, or
"dry cord," in which a greasy material was placed between
the colors to prevent them from running, and tile-mosaic, a
laborious technique that involved cutting patterns from tile
slabs glazed in monochrome colors and fitting them together. 3
The same two techniques appear in Edirne and continue in
the monuments built in Istanbul. After the middle of the fif-
teenth century, however, Ottoman tiles are white-bodied. In
Istanbul this body appears in the tile-mosaic panels used on
the facade of the Çinili Ko§k, built in 1473 by Mehmed II
within the Topkapi Palace complex; 4 and in the cuerda seca
tiles in the Mosque of Selim I (1522/1523), the Medrese of
Hurrern Sultan ( 1538/1539), 5 the Mausoleum of §ehzade
6
Mehmed (1548), and the Mosque of Kara Ahmed Pa§a
(1554), where this technique was employed for the last time.
The first use of white-bodied underglaze-painted tiles is in
the Muradiye Mosque in Edirne. The structure, built for Mu-
rad II in 1435/1436, was originally decorated with wall paint-
ings and sometime later, possibly in the mid-fifteenth cen-
tury, a dado of hexagonal blue-and-white tiles was added to Fig. 19. Blue-and-white ewer dated 1510 (London, The British Museum, G.
the sanctuary. 7 It is not known when these tiles were made 1983.1)
or whether they were intended for this building or removed
from another. Their decoration incorporates Chinese-inspired
themes (such as floral bouquets and scrolls) as well as designs
employed in late-fifteenth-century manuscripts produced in
the Edirne court. The same body appears in the underglaze- 1508). Since the tiles in both structures are almost identical,
painted blue, turquoise, and purple lunettes made for the Üc they must have been produced at the same time, possibly in
§erefeli Mosque in Edirne, built for Murad II between 1437 the 1510s or the 1520s when the royal mausoleums in Bursa
and 1447. 8 were redecorated. 9 The same style of decoration appears on a
Tiles used in the monuments constructed during the first series of mosque lamps found in the Mausoleum of Bayezid
half of the fifteenth century in Bursa and Edirne, which were II (c. 1512) in Istanbul and in the tiles of the Yeni Valide
the capitals of the empire prior to the conquest of Istanbul, Mosque in Manisa (1522/1523) and those in the Mausoleum
must have been made locally. Imperial kilns in iznik appear of Çoban Mustafa Pa$a in Gebze ( 1528/1529). 10
to have been set up soon after the court settled in the new Another date is presented by a ceramic ewer (fig. 19) in-
capital, most likely by the potters of Edirne who moved scribed 1510." This famous piece, now in the British Mu-
there. This city, which had been producing pottery since the seum as a part of the Godman Bequest, copies the shape of a
fourteenth or fifteenth century, had ample supplies of white metal ewer and contains an Armenian inscription in the foot
clay and sand, together with water, wood, and minerals ring, which states that it was made for "Abraham of Kü-
needed by the ceramists. The first commission of the Iznik tahya," a term which came to be used to identify the entire
potters must have been the tiles used in the Çinili Kô§k, series, iznik ware is also mentioned in the Hazine inventories
which were executed in the tile-mosaic technique, relying on dated 1505, which list ewers (ibrik), basins (legen or ligen),
the style employed in Edirne. This laborious method was and footed bowls (ayak tasi, presumably meaning ayakh tas). 12
soon abandoned in favor of underglaze-painted tiles. This evidence demonstrates that iznik was producing un-
The earliest datable underglaze-painted blue-and-white tiles derglaze-painted blue-and-white pottery by the turn of the
made in iznik appear to be those decorating two mausoleums sixteenth century. The decorative repertoire of this ware relies
in Bursa, which was the traditional site for the tombs of heavily on manuscript illuminations, using scrolls with ha-
princes. One of them was made for §ehzade Mustafa (died tayis, rumis, and cloud bands as well as inscriptions, employ-
1474/1475), a nd another for §ehzade Mahmud (died 1507/ ing tight compositions with clearly defined zones, painted

236