Dish with calligraphic decoration. Turkey, “Iznik”, c. 1480.

Stonepaste, siliceous underglaze painting over a siliceous slip coating H. 7.5 cm; Opening Diam. 37 cm; Base Diam. 23.2 cm Musée du Louvre, Charles Piet-Lataudrie bequest, 1909 OA.

Around 1470-80, potters from the city of Iznik began to produce very high quality stonepaste ceramic wares, which vied with Chinese porcelain in their whiteness and brilliance. Their decoration in reserve on a cobalt blue ground was inspired by Yuan (1271-1368) blue-and-white porcelains. The quality of these ceramic wares reflected the ambitions of a court patronage with a growing demand for objects of luxury and prestige. The interior of the dish with flanged rim is divided into concentric circles separated by white filets. In the central medallion an interlace motif with a taut dynamic movement, bearing leaves and delicately shaded rumi split-palmettes, is arranged as an eight-pointed star. The three successive rings are adorned with undulating or spiral-style scrolls with fleshy hatayi flowers derived from the motifs of peonies or lotus blossoms of Chinese ceramics; the petals of the veined flowers with their upwardly-curled tips have been compared to “boxing gloves”. This motif highly characteristic of the first phase of Iznik pottery is inspired by the creations of Baba Nakkas, a major designer from the reign of Mehmet II whose output is known through drawings conserved in an album in the Topkapi Museum. From the driving force of book arts, this motif would make its way into other arts, carved on contemporaneous wood paneling, chased in metal, or in leatherwork. Within the medial ring of the well, as if superimposed upon the scrolling, runs a line of Kufic script with cursive upstrokes whose letters are recognizable but whose meaning has yet to be deciphered.