Page 243 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

tional (with the possible exception of mosque lamps and several tiles are joined together.
spherical pieces used for symbolic and decorative purposes), The same cartoon was used on another plate, which is un-
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they have remained in pristine condition due to their high derglaze-painted in blue, turquoise, green, and purple. This
quality and the care with which they were handled by their example belongs to the third type of iznik ware and is thus
owners. datable to the second quarter of the sixteenth century, sug-
The popularity of iznik products led to Italian copies in the gesting that the molded white plate and the blue-and-white
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second half of the sixteenth century. European copies were tile were also produced during these years.
revived in the nineteenth century, following the enthusiasm The Topkapi Palace plate is obviously an experimental
for orientalism that swept Europe, with excellent imitations piece, using Chinese-inspired scrolls and cloud bands that
(and even forgeries) of sixteenth-century Ottoman ceramics were already a part of the decorative vocabulary of iznik
made in France, England, Hungary, Austria, and Italy, partic- ware and combining them with a composition used on tiles
ularly in Florence by Cantagalli. 47 A similar revival took place produced in the same locality. One wonders why a hexago-
in Turkey in the twentieth century with the Yildiz Palace stu- nal tile pattern was chosen among all the available composi-
dios in Istanbul and workshops in Kütahya actively reproduc- tions. The experiment was not very successful, which may
ing the types of pottery and tiles initiated in Iznik. explain the absence of other pieces produced from the same
mold.
A more typical white ware incorporates restrained under-
White Ware glaze-painted blue designs, as observed in the jug in Kuwait
(164). It has a thin blue band at the rim, decorated with a
Ottoman potters, whose copies of blue-and-white Yuan and scroll similar to that on the plate. A simplified blue braid and
Ming dynasty porcelain are well known, were thought to a wider band composed of connected trefoils encircle the
have been oblivious to Chinese white ware and celadon. The neck; another blue braid appears at the lower edge of the
recent publication of a white plate with molded decoration in body. The handle is defined by two wide vertical blue lines,
the Topkapi Palace indicates that iznik potters also produced with a series of horizontal strokes filling the outer surface; a
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monochrome wares. The artists must have experimented lobed cartouche and a blossom embellish the upper and
with green glazes as well, since objects with this color were lower ends.
recorded in the documents, and fragments have been found The remaining decoration is rendered in slip and consists of
in Iznik; some of the so-called Iranian celadons in the a series of "lotus" panels, or rectangles surmounted by trefoil
Topkapi Palace may have been made by Ottoman potters. arches. A frieze of these panels appears around the neck and
The white plate in the Topkapi Palace (163) has an excep- lower body, each filled with trefoil blossoms with additional
tional decorative repertoire that employs two or more differ- trefoils sprinkled between the arches. The upper body con-
ent traditions and styles. A Chinese-inspired scroll with split tains a variation of the same theme; the panels are upside-
leaves recalling rumis appears on the flattened rim foliated down, joined together, and filled either with a long stroke or
with eight points; the cavetto contains six isolated cloud-band a row of four trefoils.
cartouches; and the center shows a large hexagon that has at The simplicity of the decoration suggests that it was pro-
its corners small trefoils with sprays of fine lines that extend duced in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, reveal-
into the voids between the cloud bands of the cavetto. The ing an understatement similar to that found on engraved and
exterior shows six floral sprays painted in white slip, while incised silver vessels. The same limited use of blue on a white
the design on the interior was produced by molding. The use body appears in a mosque lamp found in the Mausoleum of
of a mold suggests that there were other examples, none of Selim I and on a spherical ornament in the Walters Art Gal-
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which has yet come to light. lery, both of which contain only bands of inscriptions. A
The hexagon in the center reproduces compositions used shard of a molded plate decorated with floral scrolls and
on blue-and-white or blue-and-turquoise tiles (see 180). A sprays with thin blue bands defining its rim, cavetto, and
scroll with six large hatayis alternates with six cartouches center was unearthed in iznik during the 1983 excavations.
formed by a pair of rumis growing from a central peony; the These examples appear to belong to a small group of iznik
scroll links with the small blossoms in the centers of the car- pieces produced around the same time.
touches, creating a twelve-pointed star. The unit is banded by
blossoms cut in half.
An identical composition is found on a blue-and-white tile Blue-and-White Ware
with the same shape and dimensions, indicating that the car-
toon for the tile was reemployed to make the mold for the The earliest type of iznik ceramics is blue-and-white ware.
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plate. The frame with cut-off blossoms makes far more There are two fairly distinct groups; in the first metalwork
sense on tiles, since the blossoms become completed when shapes and nakka§hane designs were used. In the second

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