Name of Object:

Dish

Location:

Lund, Sweden

Holding Museum:

Museum of Cultural History

Date of Object:

Hegira first half of the 11th century / AD first half of the 17th century

Museum Inventory Number:

KM 14.261

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic; underglaze painted.

Dimensions:

Diameter 26.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Iznik, Turkey.

Description:

The polychrome underglaze painted dish with a sloping rim and a deep well presents a black-outlined figure of a woman on a white background. The woman wears a long green, belted dress, a blouse with blue sleeves, white trousers and a green hat. Her shoes and the flower that she holds in her right hand are of thick pale red. Flowers on thin curved stems fill the area around the woman. The rim shows a standardised Chinese motif of waves and rocks. On the back the dish is painted with green and blue ornaments.
Figurative depictions on Iznik ceramics were inspired by the popular imagery of miniature costume albums, many of which were produced for sale to Europeans from the beginning of the AH 11th century / AD 17th century.

View Short Description

Polychrome painted dish with a deep well presenting a female figure on a white background. The area around the woman is filled with flowers. Figurative depictions on Iznik ceramics were inspired by the popular imagery of miniature costume albums.

How date and origin were established:

The object was dated according to its decoration. Figurative depictions occurred in great number on Iznik ceramics from the beginning of the 11th / 17th century. They were inspired by single-figure costume studies such as the Album of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1011–25 / 1603–17) and its popular copies.

How Object was obtained:

Bought in 1904 from the collector and art dealer I. G. Fenton, London.

How provenance was established:

From the wave and rock pattern on the rim and from the depicted human figure, which was a popular motif of Iznik ceramics.

Selected bibliography:

Atasoy, N. and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989.
Carswell, J., Iznik Pottery, London, 1998.
Kulturens Årsbok 2004. Mellanöstern Här, 56–7.
Müller-Wiener, M., Türkisch-Osmanische Keramik, Traunstein, 2004.

Citation of this web page:

Friederike Voigt (partially based on information provided by the Museum of Cultural History in Lund). "Dish" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01_A;38;en

Prepared by: Friederike Voigt (partially based on information provided by the Museum of Cultural History in Lund).Friederike Voigt (partially based on information provided by the Museum of Cultural History in Lund).

Friederike Voigt has an MA in Iranian studies, history of art and social science and is currently working on her doctoral thesis on wall tiles in architectural decoration of Qajar Iran. Since 2004 she has been a project-related curator at the Museum for Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm for Museum With No Frontiers. She studied at Humboldt University in Berlin, at the University of Tehran and archaeology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. She taught Persian language at several universities in Germany. She was an assistant curator at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Cultures at the Museum of Ethnology, State Museums of Berlin. Her main fields of interest are the material culture of Iran, especially of the Qajar period, and contemporary Iranian art.

Copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: SE 40

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Ottomans


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Figurative Art | Human Representation

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Ceramics

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