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1. SAZ LEAF AND BROKEN STEM Turkey (Iznik) circa 1575 Height: 27.4 cm Width: 25.2 cm |
A polychrome underglaze-painted tile in shades of turquoise, cobalt blue, emerald green, sage green and sealing wax red against a crisp white ground. The design features a prominent saz leaf surrounded by stylised rosettes and serrated cartouches. The large vibrant turquoise saz leaf moves in a slight S-curve from left to right, its serrated edges outlined in cobalt blue. A single tulip spray with sealing wax stripes decorates the turquoise ground to its centre. Looping over and through the saz leaf is a broken branch from a large prunus spray, which emerges from the bottom of the tile. The sage green branches hold two groups of stylised five-petalled rosettes in shades of cobalt blue with red buds and emerald green leaves that surround the central saz leaf. The broken branch hangs limply down, nestling within the saz leaf’s serrated fronds, giving an added air of naturalism to the design. To the bottom left and top right of the tile, glimpses of composite floral palmettes can be seen, balanced to the other corners with serrated floral cartouches depicting carnations and tulips against a thick raised sealing wax red ground. All of the polychrome designs are set against a crisp white ground, further highlighting the bold and vibrant colours. This tile is part of a well-known group from the Eyüp shrine and mosque complex on the Golden Horn in Istanbul. Eyüp had established a monastery in the fifth century, which was then restored by and sometimes gave refuge to a succession of Byzantine emperors. The tomb of Ayyub al-Ansari, (Eyüp in Turkish) was discovered there in 1458, and a mosque was built to commemorate him. As a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who fell in the First Arab Siege, 674-678 AD, he is greatly revered and the mosque and shrine remain an important place of pilgrimage for Turkish Muslims today. There are a number of examples of Eyüp tiles to be found in public and private collections: a large panel from the baths at Eyüp is in the Victoria and Albert Museum; two panels of eight tiles are in the Louvre; a panel of four in the David Collection, Copenhagen; and others in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Çinili Köşk in Istanbul and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. Similar examples are published in Hülya Bilgi, Dance Of Fire: Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer Koç Collections, 2009, p. 222; and Maria d’Orey Capucho Queiroz Ribeiro, Iznik Pottery and Tiles in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, 2009, p. 119. Provenance: Philippa Scott (1946-2023), London, acquired 1970s/1980s |