Tile panel, fritware, Iznik, 1570-1575

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. 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.