plate, fat

The Iznik pottery dish decorated in cobalt-blue, thin pale green and relief red, with black outlines on a white background shows at the centre a dense floral design. The entire dish is treated as a single decorative surface. The flowers – red dotted tulips and carnations, a peony and a hyacinth spray falling across the centre of the plate – emerge from a leafy tuft and are adapted by curved and broken stems to suit the scale and surface of the dish. This style is called 'quatre fleurs' after the four principal types of flowers, the tulip, carnation, rose and hyacinth. It was promoted by the court painter Kara Memi in the second half of the AH 10th / AD 16th century and shows a greater realism in floral depiction than earlier styles. Feathered saz leaves combined with flowering sprays as can be seen next to the peony or with a simple leaf as above the tuft is a development of the last quarter of AH 10th / AD 16th century.
The floral design at the centre of the dish is framed with a stylised Chinese wave-and-rock border on a flat sloping rim. The Chinese-influenced type of foliated rim, used together with the wave-and-rock motif, had been given up in the second half of the AH 10th / AD 16th century because of its costly freehand cutting.
On the back the dish is painted with four blue-coloured spiral motifs alternating with four green trefoils on a white background. The transparent slightly turquoise glaze covers the back and bottom except for the foot-ring.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;17;en&cp]

How date and origin were established:
The 'quatre fleurs' style was a development of the second half of the 10th / 16th century, and the feathered saz leaves combined with flowering sprays was a development of the last quarter of that century. The dish seems to be not later than the 10th / 16th century because of the careful painted design and the fine quality of its glaze and colours.

How Object was obtained:
Purchased with government funds from the collection of F. R. Martin.

How provenance was established:
The floral decoration and the shape are both specific for Iznik ceramics.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;17;en&cp]