Tile Panel thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Islamic Middle East, Room 42, The Jameel Gallery

Tile Panel

ca. 1570-1575 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is one of 12 tile panels of the same size and shape and with related designs that are found in collections outside Turkey. They show the outstanding technical quality and refinement of design achieved by the tilemakers working in Iznik and Istanbul in the reign of Sultan Selim II (1566–74). This group of panels was previously associated with the mosque built by Piyale Paşa (died 1578) in the Kasımpaşa district of Istanbul, north of the Golden Horn, and completed in 1573. It was thought that the panels were originally set above the eight main windows in the qiblah wall of the mosque, either side of the mihrab. This does not, though, account for the existence of 12 matching tile panels, and their connection with the mosque has now been discounted. It has been suggested that the 12 panels come from a demolished residential structure erected by Piyale Paşa in the same district.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 16 parts.

  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
  • Tile
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Lunette-shaped panel of 16 tiles, fritware painted under the glaze, Turkey (Iznik), 1570-75.
Physical description
Lunette-shaped panel of 16 tiles, fritware with decoration painted under the glaze in cobalt blue, light blue, red, white and a dark blue-green colour. On the white ground of the main field, a strictly symmetrical design combines the coils of a single, long cloud band with a type of scrolling pattern called hatâyî in Turkish. Its spiralling stems bear large composite blossoms of six different types, as well as small rosettes and buds and a variety of leaves. The border has a cobalt-blue ground and a repeat pattern, with large rosettes with eight white petals flanked by two white leaves on an S-shaped stem.
Dimensions
  • Width: 149cm
Styles
Gallery label
  • Lunette-shaped Panel (above right) Turkey, probably Iznik About 1570 Turkish tilemakers achieved an outstanding quality of technique and decoration in the reign of Sultan Selim II (1566–74). The design here is self-contained. The coils of a single cloud band in red extend across the whole of the main field, intertwined with scrollwork set with large composite flowers. Fritware painted under the glaze Museum no. 1889-1897
  • TILE PANEL Fritware with polychrome underglaze painting TURKEY (made at Iznik) about 1570 This panel and other like it are reported to have come from the mosque of Piyale Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Admiral, in 1573.(Used until 11/2003)
Object history
Purchased in Istanbul in 1897 from Mrs Alice Whitaker, daughter and heir of William Henry Wrench (1836-96). Wrench was British consul in the city when he died, and he had formed a significant collection of Ottoman and Iranian objects while in the consular service. This tile panel is shown on display in Wrench's residence in the Pera (Beyoğlu) district of the city in two photographs acquired by the V&A five years earlier (see PH.331- and 332-1892).
Summary
This is one of 12 tile panels of the same size and shape and with related designs that are found in collections outside Turkey. They show the outstanding technical quality and refinement of design achieved by the tilemakers working in Iznik and Istanbul in the reign of Sultan Selim II (1566–74). This group of panels was previously associated with the mosque built by Piyale Paşa (died 1578) in the Kasımpaşa district of Istanbul, north of the Golden Horn, and completed in 1573. It was thought that the panels were originally set above the eight main windows in the qiblah wall of the mosque, either side of the mihrab. This does not, though, account for the existence of 12 matching tile panels, and their connection with the mosque has now been discounted. It has been suggested that the 12 panels come from a demolished residential structure erected by Piyale Paşa in the same district.
Bibliographic reference
Arthur Lane, A Guide to the Collection of Tiles, London, 1960, 21.
Collection
Accession number
1889:1 to 16-1897

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Record createdFebruary 3, 2004
Record URL
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