Bowl
London, England, United Kingdom
Victoria and Albert Museum
About Victoria and Albert Museum, London
About hegira 951–56 / AD 1545–50
C.1979–1910
Painted and glazed ceramic.
Height 26.8 cm, diameter 43.1 cm
Ottoman
Iznik, Turkey.
A large bowl on a high foot, decorated with underglaze painting. On the exterior, flowers and leaves in shades of blue and sage-green meander with relative freedom about the surface. The largest flowers feature a distinct cloud-band motif at their centre. Similar flower and leaf motifs, more regularly organised, adorn the foot, at whose base is a thin band of repeating cartouches containing four leaves each. The extraordinary size of this bowl, as well as the skill with which it is decorated, suggests production for the highest levels of the Ottoman hierarchy, although direct evidence for this is lacking.
View Short DescriptionA very large footed bowl on a high foot, decorated with large leaves and flowers in blue and sage-green. The size and quality of this bowl suggests that it was made for a high-ranking Ottoman official, possibly for washing the feet during ablutions.
The style and details of the decoration link this bowl with a group of wares associated with the circle of an artist named Musli, who signed a mosque lamp dated 956 / 1549.
Bequest of George Salting, 1910.
Iznik was the centre of quality ceramic production in this period.
Atasoy, N., and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, Istanbul/London, 1989, pp.135–8 and colour plate 356.
Stanley, T., with Rosser-Owen, M. and Vernoit, S., Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Middle East, London, 2004, p.102.
Barry Wood "Bowl" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus02;37;en
Prepared by: Barry WoodBarry Wood
Barry Wood is Curator (Islamic Gallery Project) in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He studied history of art at Johns Hopkins University and history of Islamic art and architecture at Harvard University, from where he obtained his Ph.D. in 2002. He has taught at Harvard, Eastern Mediterranean University, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has also worked at the Harvard University Art Museums and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. He has published on topics ranging from Persian manuscripts to the history of exhibitions.
Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez
Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.
True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.
MWNF Working Number: UK2 43
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