Page 265 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

covered cylindrical box or bowl. The boss, painted blue and
encircled by a green band, shows intersecting rumi scrolls re-
volving around a six-petaled blossom, in reserve and ac-
cented with touches of red. Similar rumi scrolls appear on the
flattened portion of the lid, painted in blue and red on white.
The scrolls overlap, knot, and loop around one another and
create three large and three small cartouches. The design of
the central boss appears on the edge of the lid.
A second example belonging to the early experimental
group is a plate with a central hatayi enclosed by a pair of
incurving saz leaves that spring from a cluster at the bottom
(189). The hatayi grows from a pair of thin branches that
meet to form an ogival arch, held together by a cloud collar.
Two other thin and long branches, bearing blossoms at their
tips, cross under the hatayi, break at the top, and swoop
down along the sides. Growing at the base are additional
leaves and flowers. The leaves at the base and around the
central blossom overlay sprays of red blossoms; touches of
188. Lid with rumi scroll, mid-sixteenth century (Paris, Musée du Louvre, red also appear in the other blossoms and leaves as well as in
A.O. 5960) the trefoil at the lower tip of the hatayi and in its central
pods. Emerald green was employed in the smaller leaves, re-
placing the weaker grayish sage used in the previous group.
The foliated rim contains a wave pattern, while the exterior is
easily understood themes. The decorative repertoire includes decorated with sprays of tulips that alternate with roundels.
formal designs, such as rumi scrolls, cloud bands, and çinte- The compositions used in the central medallion, rim, and
mani and scale patterns as well as saz elements and a variety exterior were employed on four-color ware with purple 113 as
of naturalistic flowers and trees, including hatayi blossoms, well as on early four-color ware with red. 114 The appearance
long feathery leaves, roses, tulips, carnations, hyacinths, blos- of the same theme on two different types of ceramics suggests
soming fruit trees, and cypresses. Figurai compositions are that they were produced contemporaneously.
limited to birds. 110 Sailboats and ships, on the other hand, be- A floral motif that was used in the scrolls decorating a
came a popular theme toward the end of the sixteenth cen- group of mid-sixteenth-century blue-and-whites (see 171)
tury and appear on plates, tankards, and jugs made for popu- appears as the main theme in a plate rendered in blue, tur-
lar consumption. Inscriptions were, with the exception of quoise, and pale red (190), which indicates that pottery
1
mosque lamps, very few. " painted with a single color also was contemporaneous with
The shapes include plates with plain or foliated rims, flat polychrome examples. In the center of this plate is an elabo-
traylike circular pieces, vases, bottles, tankards, jugs, lidded rate cartouche composed of trefoils, split leaves, and floral
bowls, mosque lamps, spherical ornaments, and even pen elements sprouting two large lateral leaves that swing back
boxes and tombstones, at times rendered on blue, green, or and join the main unit with buds. The tendrils at the base
red grounds. Large footed bowls, produced in other iznik terminate in a pair of bird heads with crownlike cloud bands
types, appear to have been omitted from the repertoire of the placed over them. Additional cloud bands appear in the voids
four-color wares with red. On the other hand there are a around the edges. A stylized wave pattern encircles the plain
number of new shapes, including a few jarlike vases with rim; the exterior shows six sketchily drawn cloud bands alter-
shoulders pierced to hold flowers, their bases painted with nating with circular motifs.
signs resembling an "S" superimposed by a "T/' possibly The transformation of a floral element into a zoomorphic
made for Europeans and imitating maiolica marks. 112 one, initiated by saz drawings, is found on other Ottoman ce-
Because there are no signed and dated examples the chrono- ramics. In some examples the blossoms are animated and
logical development of this type of ware is difficult to estab- represent faces of animals;" 5 in others the flowers are made
116
lish. The potters worked for a mixed clientele and produced to resemble fish or insects. This fanciful conflation of ani-
both high-quality pieces and mass-produced examples. mal and floral elements appears on a limited number of
Pale and washed out reds in one group of objects suggest pieces and represents a little-known but fascinating aspect of
that they were among the earlier examples exhibiting the iznik pottery.
new color. Among these is a circular lid with a short straight Among the rare datable early pieces using red is the fa-
edge and a central boss (188), presumably once a part of a mous lamp in the Victoria and Albert Museum (191), reputed

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