Dish with Artichokes and Tulipscirca 1550-55

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 3

Ceramic dish with white ground and scalloped rim, painted in cobalt blue and teal green with large scale-patterned tulips and a vine border of pinecone motifs

Title: Dish with Artichokes and Tulips
Place Made: Turkey, Iznik
Date Made: circa 1550-55
Period: Ottoman (1281-1924)
Medium: Fritware, underglaze painted
Dimensions: 2 5/8 x 14 1/8 in. (6.66 x 35.87 cm)
Credit Line: The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2002.1.21
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes: Ceramics made in Iznik, in western Turkey, represent one of the most renowned and influential arts of the Ottoman period. The Iznik kilns, about 85 miles southeast of the capital, Istanbul, manufactured both architectural revetment and tableware such as this handsome dish. It belongs to a specific phase in Iznik ceramics, beginning sometime in the 1540s, when potters introduced manganese purple, sage green, and black to their palette, which had previously focused on blue and white (see M.85.237.80). Their decorative repertoire continued to privilege plant-based designs such as peonies, pomegranates, rosettes, tulips, and artichokes. The latter two motifs form the main decoration at the center of this large dish, where they are rendered in blue and green, while the cavetto and rim bear green pomegranates alternating with blue sprays of either leaves or tulips. Unlike earlier blue and white and the most popular color scheme of red, green, and blue, introduced in the mid-sixteenth century, this specific palette was not used for architectural revetment, and the tableware had a more limited period of production.
Selected Bibliography: Atasoy, Nurhan and Julian Raby. Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey. London: Alexandria Press, 1989.
Komaroff, Linda. Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2005.
Sarre, Friedrich, ed. Die Ausstellung von Meisterwerken muhammedanischer Kunst in München, 1910. Munich: F. Bruckmann, 1912.
Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.
Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.

Dish with Artichokes and Tulipscirca 1550-55

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 3

Title: Dish with Artichokes and Tulips
Place Made: Turkey, Iznik
Date Made: circa 1550-55
Period: Ottoman (1281-1924)
Medium: Fritware, underglaze painted
Dimensions: 2 5/8 x 14 1/8 in. (6.66 x 35.87 cm)
Credit Line: The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.2002.1.21
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes: Ceramics made in Iznik, in western Turkey, represent one of the most renowned and influential arts of the Ottoman period. The Iznik kilns, about 85 miles southeast of the capital, Istanbul, manufactured both architectural revetment and tableware such as this handsome dish. It belongs to a specific phase in Iznik ceramics, beginning sometime in the 1540s, when potters introduced manganese purple, sage green, and black to their palette, which had previously focused on blue and white (see M.85.237.80). Their decorative repertoire continued to privilege plant-based designs such as peonies, pomegranates, rosettes, tulips, and artichokes. The latter two motifs form the main decoration at the center of this large dish, where they are rendered in blue and green, while the cavetto and rim bear green pomegranates alternating with blue sprays of either leaves or tulips. Unlike earlier blue and white and the most popular color scheme of red, green, and blue, introduced in the mid-sixteenth century, this specific palette was not used for architectural revetment, and the tableware had a more limited period of production.
Selected Bibliography: Atasoy, Nurhan and Julian Raby. Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey. London: Alexandria Press, 1989.
Komaroff, Linda. Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2005.
Sarre, Friedrich, ed. Die Ausstellung von Meisterwerken muhammedanischer Kunst in München, 1910. Munich: F. Bruckmann, 1912.
Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.
Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.