An impressive Iznik glazed ceramic bowl beautifully decorated with flower and vegetation motifs over a white opaque glaze. The dish has many references that make it not only an object of great beauty but also an important and complex cultural document as floral motifs transcended their merely decorative function to reflect spiritual, cultural and literary connotations. Indeed, within the 16th-century Ottoman culture, gardens were both spiritual and intellectual spaces, places for the religious scholars to study and contemplate the marvels of Allah the Creator. Therefore, flowers evoked Qur’anic descriptions of Paradise and the garden of Eden. The body of the present piece is decorated in the saz style, with the flowers’ arrangement enhancing the spiral-like movement of the saz leaves. This style was introduced to the Ottoman court by the sixteenth century Iranian painter, Shah Qulu, who moved to Istanbul at the beginning of the century.

The floral motifs were used on Ottoman prayer books, Qur’an frontispieces, tobacco pouches, kaftans, imperial tents, and decorative mattress covers, highlighting Ottomans’ delicate tastes and passion for ‘beautiful flowers [which] are held in high esteem’.

The town of Iznik in Anatolia was an important production center for ceramic manufacture during the fifteenth, sixteenth and part of the seventeenth centuries. Ceramics were produced for both the Istanbul court as well as for the broader market and the type of wares included dishes, bowls, tankards, and bottles. Iznik ceramic production initially used blue-and-white decoration. However, by the second half of the sixteenth century, Iznik pottery saw the gradual addition of new colors as pigments were developed.