Serving Dish (Tabaq) with Vegetal and Fish-Scale Patterns (Ottoman dynasty (1299–1923), 16th century): Artwork and History

Serving Dish (Tabaq) with Vegetal and Fish-Scale Patterns (Ottoman dynasty (1299–1923), 16th century) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Turkey Iznik.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The central design of this dish features two opposing leaves surrounding a central three-lobed (trefoil) shape, all set against a fish-scale motif in turquoise and blue. The design of the leaves is in the so-called saz (reed) style, referring to the reed pen used by Persian and Turkish artists to create black-ink drawings. Early drawings in this style depict dragons and phoenixes in combat surrounded by blossoms and feather-like leaves. The rim of the vessel contains a classic "wave and rock" pattern, inspired by Chinese ceramics. At the beginning of Iznik pottery production, Chinese porcelain exerted a large influence on the style and colors of Iznik tiles. However, by the late 16th century, when this dish was created, Iznik potters had developed their own distinctive style of colorful floral and abstract motifs that went beyond their original Chinese influence.

Object facts

• Title: Serving Dish (Tabaq) with Vegetal and Fish-Scale Patterns
• Date: Ottoman dynasty (1299–1923), 16th century
• Artist attribution: Turkey Iznik
• Place of origin: Turkey
• Medium: Iznik ware, fritware with underglaze painting in blue, turquoise, red, and black on white slip
• Dimensions: 6 × 30.7 cm (2 3/8 × 12 1/16 in.); Diam.: 30.7 cm (12 1/16 in.)
• Type: Ceramics
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1930.993

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.