- Title
- A Panel of Four Tiles
- Date Made
- 1580s
- Medium
- Fritware, underglaze painted
- Dimensions
- 21 1/16 x 14 9/16 in. (53.50 x 36.99 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.85.237.86a-d
- 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, produced both tableware and architectural revetment such as this. Tiles were first manufactured at Iznik around the early sixteenth century; however, production increased dramatically in the second half of the century as the court sponsored more and more new buildings.
Toward the mid-sixteenth century, the palette of Iznik wares expanded to include a brilliant red and a bright grass-green, as here. At about the same time that the Iznik palette reached its classic form, the focus of the ceramic industry shifted from tableware to tilework. This shift may have occurred as a result of the massive building projects undertaken by the court beginning in the 1550s during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–66) and continuing under his immediate successors. These four tiles are associated with one such structure in Istanbul, the mosque and shrine of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (Eyüp Sultan in Turkish), a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who died in an early attempt to conquer the city in the 670s. Some tiles of this type were brought together during the reconstruction of the mosque in 1798–99, while others can be found in the vestibule of the mausoleum.
2025
- Selected Bibliography
- Denny, Walter B. "Turkish Ceramics and Textiles in the Binney Collection." Arts of Asia 17, no.6 (November/December 1987): 105-22.
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.
Pal, Pratapaditya, Thomas W. Lentz, Sheila R. Canby, Edwin Binney, 3rd, Walter B. Denny, and Stephen Markel. "Arts from Islamic Cultures: Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 17, no. 6 (November/December 1987): 73-130.
