Name of Object:

Tile panel

Location:

Stockholm, Sweden

Holding Museum:

Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet)

About Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet), Stockholm

Date of Object:

Hegira 12th–13th centuries / AD 18th–19th centuries

Museum Inventory Number:

S.N.I. 031

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic; faience.

Dimensions:

Height 156 cm, width 74 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Husaynid

Provenance:

Tunisia, possibly Tunis.

Description:

The rectangular panel composed of square tiles is dominated by a yellow and brown horseshoe-shaped arch supported by two columns and two capitals. A dense, symmetrical floral design fills the area under the arch emerging from a vase standing on a base. The vase is flanked by cypress trees. Three lotus-like flowers on sturdy stems, one on the top of the other, form a middle axis. On each side of the axis a tendril composed of three scrolls emerges from the vase. Each scroll is filled with a large blossom, of which the two that face each other are similar: the lower pair are rosettes, the two in the middle are lotuses, and the top pair are peonies. The remaining surface under the arch and the spandrels above are filled with sprays of various flowers. Above the arch is a circle containing a motif of a half-moon. The design is painted in an opaque orange-yellow, two tones of green, dark and light blue and brown on an opaque white glaze. The panel is set in a wooden frame.
In the AH 11th and 12th / AD 17th and 18th centuries, faience (glazed coloured earthenware) became the dominant element of the Tunisian architectural decoration and the horseshoe-shaped arch called mihrab (prayer niche) an unmistakable feature of most tile panels. The more naturalistic floral decoration and the representations of cypresses are due to the influence of Ottoman art.

Rectangular panel of faience tiles painted with a horseshoe-shaped arch. A dense floral design, emerging from a vase, fills the area under the arch. In the AH 11th–12th / AD 17th–18th centuries, faience (glazed coloured earthenware) became the dominant element of Tunisian architectural decoration.

How date and origin were established:

This tile panel shows close similarities to panels made by a faience atelier working from about the mid-12th–mid-13th / mid-18th–mid-19th centuries.

How Object was obtained:

There is no information about acquisition.

How provenance was established:

The style of decoration was characteristic of ateliers in Tunis.

Selected bibliography:

Coleurs de Tunisie: 25 Siècles de Céramique, Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1994.
Loviconi, A. and Loviconi, D., Les Faiences de Tunisie, Aix-en-Provence, 1994.

Citation of this web page:

Friederike Voigt "Tile panel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;10;en

Prepared by: Friederike VoigtFriederike Voigt

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 11