Bøger i Eastern Art serien

Some of the greatest glories of Ottoman art are the luxurious ceramic vessels and splendid tiles made to decorate newly founded mosques and palaces by the Turkish pottery at Iznik (ancient Nicaea). Their designs combine purely Turkish motifs with elements ingeniously transposed from imported Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Over time a more subtle painterly style and complex palette were developed, culminating in the brilliant combination of cobalt blue, turquoise, olive green, magenta, and red that became the internationally recognized Iznik hallmark. Iznik ceramics were highly prized far beyond the Ottoman Empire, and although the factories had passed their peak by the late seventeenth century, their influence lived on through nineteenth-century European imitations by such potters as William de Morgan and Cantagalli.

Ceramic tiles have been produced for over a thousand years in the heartlands of the Islamic world, from Iraq in the ninth century to Turkey in the nineteenth. Superb color photographs and informative text make this book a treasure for anyone Interested in art Venetia Porter is a curator in the Department of Coins & Medals in the British Museum.