Tile with Composite Flowers and Saz Leaves

Production of ceramic tiles and vessels reached a peak under Ottoman court patronage in the sixteenth century. The court studio provided designs to semi-autonomous workshops in Iznik, which manufactured tiles for numerous large-scale imperial projects. With its white ground and foliate decoration in brilliant cobalt blue, emerald green, turquoise, and slightly raised red, this square tile exemplifies the technical achievements of the second half of the century. The dominant motif is a composite flower, which alternates direction across the middle of the tile. Serrated leaves known as saz grow from the base of each palmette. Smaller bisected palmettes of a different form are horizontally positioned at the top and bottom edges of the tile. When this tile was juxtaposed with others of the same design, a continuous repeating pattern resulted. Identical tiles can now be seen under the pendentives on the north and south walls ofthe chamber of Sultan Murad III (r. 1574– 95), built in 1578–79 in the harem of Topkapi Palace by the illustrious architect Sinan. It is likely, however, that these tiles are not original to the room itself but were made for a different part of the harem, either later in Murad’s reign or during that of his successor Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603), and were subsequently reinstalled in Murad’s chamber, perhaps after damage caused by a fire or an earthquake. Stylistically similar tiles are found in their original location in the 1585–86 mosque of Ramazan Efendi in Istanbul.