Blue-Ground Dish with Floral Design

Unknown

ca. 1560 · Stonepaste; polychrome painted under transparent glaze · Islamic Art

As early as the fifteenth century, Ottoman potters sometimes made vessels with white decoration in reserve on a blue ground rather than the more familiar blue-on-white type. Here the decoration is an array of of flowers springing from a single source, in essence a Chinese motif, but almost completely reinterpreted by the Turkish potter. The combination of recognizable tulip and prunus blossoms with more exotic and fancifully decorated jumbo flowers as well as the refreshing asymmetrical composition give this dish a charm and subtlety lacking in more rigid floral designs.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1560

Medium

Stonepaste; polychrome painted under transparent glaze

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917