Page 268 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

to have come from the Suleymaniye Mosque. This large lamp
has a high flaring neck, low foot, and a bulbous body divided
into two by a band, each half decorated with several quatre -
foil cartouches cut in half. Affixed to the upper half are three
large hemispherical bosses with serpentine handles between
them. The base, also decorated, has a small central hole.
The lamp was constructed in three pieces, neck, upper
body, and lower body; handles and bosses were produced
separately. Broken in the past, one of the handles and a sec-
tion of the rim are missing. The misalignment of the two
halves of the body indicates that they became separated and
were incorrectly reattached. In spite of its thin red and runny
blue pigments, the lamp is carefully designed and painted,
combining hatayis and rumis. It must have been one of a se-
ries made for Suleyman's mosque and mausoleum.
A turquoise band with a black rumi scroll encircles the rim.
The neck bears a portion of the Verse of Light containing the
words "God is the light of the heavens and the earth/' in
white sülüs outlined in black on a blue ground filled with ha-
tayi scrolls. A white band appears between the neck and the
upper edge of the body.
The upper half of the body shows bisected quatrefoils com-
posed of white rumis that extend either down toward the 192. Plate with hatayi scroll and peafowl, mid-sixteenth century (London,
bosses or grow up and engulf the handles. The quatrefoils are Victoria and Albert Museum, C.2005-1910)
painted red and filled with large black hatayis. The interstices,
which contain floral scrolls, are painted blue and create a zig-
zag pattern around the quatrefoils. The motifs in both the
red-ground and blue-ground areas are connected by intersect- A better, but not totally perfected, application of the red is
ing stems, producing an intricate network with elements found on a plate decorated with a central medallion enclos-
overlapping one another. The lower half of the body employs ing a long-tailed bird amid sprays of hatayi blossoms, buds,
the same composition. and feathery leaves (192). The flora revolve around the plate
The bosses exhibit a similar design with red cartouches without a clearly defined source of origin, which is unusual
formed by white rumis enclosing black hatayis radiating from in iznik wares. The only element growing from the edge is a
a central star. Three handles, decorated with overlapping blue thin blue leaf placed above the head of the bird, which lacks
petals, emerge from the centers of the hatayis in the quatre- the crest of the peacock and may represent a peahen. The
foils and attach to the shoulder. Chains, which would nor- motifs, outlined in black and painted in red and blue as well
mally have looped around the handles, are affixed by metal as reserved in white, appear on a deep green ground.
plugs inserted in holes drilled into the body. It is possible that The plate has a red and white braid on its flattened rim,
these plugs were made after the lamp was broken and one of plain cavetto, and a series of red leaves enclosing the central
the handles was lost. medallion. The exterior contains sprays of rounded blossoms
The base, painted turquoise, contains a red and white blos- alternating with roundels. The theme used in the central me-
som around the central hole, surrounded by cloud bands. The dallion with composite blossoms and overlapping elements is
red used in the base is bright and thickly applied, contrasting characteristic of saz drawings which frequently depict birds
with the weak tone used elsewhere in the lamp. It appears hidden among fantastic foliage.
that the technique was just being perfected. The same theme was represented on an earlier example
The shape of this lamp differs from the blue-and-white with pale green and purple (see 184). An identical design on
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examples (see 166). This large format with hemispherical a red ground appears in the center of another plate," while
bosses was repeated in a pair of lamps found in the Mosque similar peafowl engulfed with saz scrolls and/or naturalistic
of Sokollu Mehmed Pa§a (sec 195). flora are shown on a number of later plates and tiles. The
118
most remarkable tiles employing this theme were used to face
the interior of the Has Oda in the Topkapi Palace in the
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191 Lamp from the Suleymaniye Mosque, c. 1557 (London, Victoria 1570s. There is also a series of small tiles representing par-
and Albert Museum, 131-1885)- rots flanking fountains, in American and European collec-

267