Name of Object:

Dish

Location:

Stockholm, Sweden

Holding Museum:

Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet)

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

Current Owner:

Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Since 1982 the main part of the Islamic collection has been on permanent loan to the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities

Date of Object:

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

Museum Inventory Number:

ÖM 301/64

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic; painted and glazed.

Dimensions:

Height 4.5 cm, diameter 26 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Iznik, Turkey.

Description:

This Iznik pottery dish is underglaze painted in bright green, which dominates the composition, pale red and blue with black for the outlines, on a white background. The floral design at the centre is composed of tulips and roses on curved stems, all springing from a leafy tuft and a serrated saz leaf falling across the centre of the plate. A tulip on a curved saz leaf was one of the few stylistic developments in the traditional floral decoration of Iznik pottery in the last quarter of the AH 10th / AD 16th century. On the slightly curved rim, there are alternating blossoms of tulips and simple rosettes. The back of the dish is painted with ten green dots and transparent glazed. The glaze is heavily crackled. The foot-ring is pierced once for suspension.
Iznik pottery of the AH 11th / AD 17th century is characterised by the increasingly inferior quality of colours and glaze as well as simplified and standardised designs, repeated in numerous examples of dishes. The artistic decline is due to the decline of Ottoman political and economic power. On the one hand the potters had to increase the production of vessels for the open market and on the other hand they had to make a profit by cutting costs.

Iznik pottery dish with polychrome underglaze painted floral decoration. The tulips and roses in the centre emerge from a leafy tuft. A serrated saz leaf falls across the centre of the plate. Alternating blossoms of tulips and rosettes decorate the rim.

How date and origin were established:

The 'quatre fleurs' style and the feathered saz leaves in combination with sprays of flowers occurred from the second half of the 10th / 16th century. However, the dish seems to be later because of the carelessly painted design and the green colour running into the glaze. These are significant features of polychrome underglaze painted ceramics of the 11th / 17th century produced for an increasing open market.

How Object was obtained:

On loan from the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm.

How provenance was established:

According to the floral decoration and the shape that are both specific for Iznik ceramics.

Selected bibliography:

Atasoy, N. and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989.
Carswell, J., Iznik Pottery. London, 1998.
Müller-Wiener, M., Türkisch-Osmanische Keramik, Traunstein, 2004.

Citation of this web page:

Friederike Voigt "Dish" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;48;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 58