Iznik - The Enchanted Forest

The Enchanted Forest of Iznik

(An enthrallingly display of Iznik ceramic tiles and flatware is now on
display at the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. Norman A. Rubin reviews
the exhibition that displays the facinating history of the Iznik
potters and their magnificant craftmanship).

In the sixteenth century, three Islamic empires were established in
Western Asia and India. The oldest and largest of these empires was the
Ottoman Turkish Empire, which had begun its expansion at the end of the
thirteenth century. The Ottoman Empire was a mulinational entity whose
cosmopolitan and polylingual court attracted artists and artisans under
the patronage of the sultans. Working in the productive atmosphere of
the court, they fashioned a new imperial style based on the legacy of
the past. The court style, which had already been established in the
time of Mehmet the Conqueror (1451-1481) runs as a theme through
various arts forms, including pottery.
The center of pottery production eventually shifted to the city of
Iznik, though court archives indicate that there still remained pottery
studios in the capital city of Istanbul. For this reason, it is
customary to use the name Iznik to designate all glazed pottery dating
from the Ottoman period. Iznik pottery, one of the Ottomani decorative
arts, demonstrate momentum and breathtaking beauty despite its simple
materials; clay decorated with lead underglazed pigments.
"The celebrated 'RUM' tableware of Iznik is more delightful than that
of China and even more beautiful."
(Badr al-din-Ghazi, Arab wayfarer, 1530)

During the Byzantine era the pottery of Iznik was similar to the other
pottery of Anatolia, but after the Turkish conquest it developed its
own distinctive style. Blue and white plates, bowls, vases, and lamps
and other items were made in Iznik in the fifteenth century, with
floral designs. Moreover production expanded greatly as the pottery
workshops were turned into imperial tile manufacturing for the many
grandoise palaces and monumental buildings.

COLOUR AND DESIGN
In September 1514, after the decisive victory of the Ottoman army over
the Safavid rulers in the Battle of Caldran, many Persian artists and
artisans flocked to Istanbul and joined the the imperial workshops
(nakkashane - Turkish). There they established the ancient Turkish
style of 'Saz' (enchanted forest - early Turkish), a style of composed
of flowers arranged on delicate tendrils burgeoning with long serrated
leaves. 'Saz' patterns were traced on paper and transferred to textiles
and ceramics, produced in the imperial court workshops in
Instanbul.
The style changed with the incorporation of floral Arabesques out-lined
on a cobalt-blue background intertwined with calligraphic
orna-mentation. Other designs began to emerge on the tiles and other
artifacts, mainly consisting of spiral scrolls derived from the
stylized "TUGHRA" (imperial cipher) of Suleiman the Magnificent (c.
1520-1566), which are often seen on state documents (Firmans).
Turquois was added to the traditional Iznik palette of blue and white
from the 1530's onwards. From the year 1540 onwards, mauve and purple
also appears in Iznik designs, followed by the colour pigments of green
and exquisite coral red unique to Iznik pottery ware. (Most of the
colours were prepared from metal oxides; blue from cobalt, brownish red
from iron; green from copper and yellow from antimony; off-white was
the natural colour of the glazed clay.)
Potters also began using an earthy red glaze known as "Iznik Red" or
"Armenian Bole", a thick clay slip rich in iron. (A rich variety of
soft unctuous clays of various colours used as pigments. The colour red
was predominant.). The thick, protuberant red glaze appeared for the
first time in tiles for Sulieman's complex of mosques and palaces,
completed in 1557.
During this period the finest Iznik pottery and tiles were exuberantly
decorated with flowers of all sorts in a stylized floral designs known
as "Hatay" (Cathay) with Chinese cloud patterns and geometric designs.
Early Iznik fritware attempted to duplicate the hardness, whiteness and
translucency of much sought after near-con-temporary Chinese porcelan
of the Yung and Ming dynasties (favored by the Ottoman rulers which
became a major part of their collection.)
But, in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, the early
decorative styles were abandoned. The 'Cini' (Chinese patterns and
stylized arabesques were replaced by patterns based on the local flora
of Anatolia', primarily tulips (in Turkish, Lale, a name that
incor-porates the name of "Allah" and that of the crescent
"Hilal".)

IZNIK GLAZE
Around the twelfth century a revolution occurred in the ceramic
technique of the Islamic potters; inspired by the Chinese porcelain.
Imports of that period of DING and QINBAI types showed that 'Hatay'
porcelain pieces were not of similar crafting of the previous periods.
The fritware was lighter finely thrown, transluscent with subtle
moulding under a thin transparent glaze. The Ottoman craftsmen could
not imitate these by means of the thick opaque glaze over a clay body
in use at that time.
Instead the Islamic potters, led by the Persians, and revived an
ancient Egyptian technique, in which an artificial body material was
made up from ground quartz with a small admixture of white clay and
glaze. The soft-paste body was then covered by thin alkaline glaze. The
'frit' body was white translucent when thin and capable of a wide range
of decorative techniques. The tiles and wares had a fine white body,
un-equal to porcelain only in its softness, and a close-fitting
brilliant glaze that allows a vibrant range of colours.
It is the invention of underglaze painting, however that was most
significant for the history of ceramics. The underglaze painting
technique required a glaze stable enough to prevent the pattern from
blurring during firing; it was discovered in the use of the virtuous
alkaline glaze coating (formulae unknown). For the first time the
potters were able to paint freely directly on the frit body under a
protective layer of glaze. The new alkaline glaze enabled the artisan
to decorate the 'frit' ware with precision and delicacy. Also this
technique did not have the disadvantages of the earlier lead-glaze
wares which involved great expense in fuel and labour.
The most impressive products of the Iznik potters of this period was
pieces crafted in the overglaze, a colour or glaze applied to the
existing glaze. And not, until the establishment of potteries in the
west in the eighteenth century, was the range of decorative techniques
surpassed (even in China).

MOTIFS AND SYMBOLS
Of all the motifs underlying the symbolism attached to objects, none
recurs as frequently as that of the univese and world kingship. "God
being the King of the world and 'the king' - whichever human ruler
might be intended - 'the shadow of God on earth'" (Kasa'i Marvazi, 13th
cent Persian poet) the world is symbolized in varied literature by the
hemispherical dome to which sky, as seen by the human eye, is
constantly compared. Because early bowls could be hemis-pherical, the
sky was alternatively, referred to in literature as the 'upturned bowl'
(tas-i nigun) and a rotating dome (gunbad-i gardan). These two sets of
images are the key and colour on pottery vessels.
Every metaphor used in literature for sky can be matched in pottery
(and metalwork). The 'turquoise dome' or 'azurine dome' is echoed many
times in the crafting of lapis lazuli Iznik pieces. The lotus dome
(gunbad-i nilufari) an image appears on bowls with chalice motifs on
the underside. As time went by the lotus chalice gave way to an
illusion of the flower or to a single lotus blosum within a rosette.
(Allusions to the dome of heaven could be made in the form of an
encircled geometrical pattern.)
During the last quarter of the sixteenth century abstract forms were
added to the Iznik repertoire. They were characterized by a focal
center and refracting outward, thus earning the name 'kaleidoscope'
style. These designs did not reflect or resemble other Ottoman or
Muslim symbolic themes. Also, functional vessels decorated in bright
colours represented an attempt to enter the lucrative foreign market,
thus putting aside the ancient motifs for the demands of the
trade.

CONCLUSION
During the years 1603-1717, when Sultan Ahmet was building the Blue
Mosque, Iznik wall tiles and functional vessels deteriorated both in
technical quality and in their aesthetic precision. This was due to
conflict between the Iznik potters and court authorities: Imperial
orders limited production to court needs. In the middle of the 17th
century, the court removed its patronage from the Iznik potters in
favour of tiles and pottery produced by the Armenian potters in
Kutahya, northwestern Turkey. Armenian potters, not only crafted
exquite tiles for their churches, but also installed them in Turkish
mosques from the end of the 17th century.

REFERENCE
1) Exhibition and archives of the Museum of Islamic Art, Old City of
Jerusalem, Israel.
2) "The Enchanted Forest of Iznik" Irit Ziffer Catalogue - "Birds of
Paradise", Professor Nurith Kenaan Kedar - Eretz Israel Museum, Tel
Aviv, Israel.
3) The Aesthetics of Islam, A.S. Melikan-Chirvani - Ceramics, Oliver
Watson - Treasures of Islam, edited by Tony Falk, Arlines Books, Philip
Wilson Publishers, England.
4) Lords of the Golden Horn, Noel Barber - Arrow Books, London.

SIDEBAR - IZNIK WARE
Iznik, historically Nicaea, a town centered in northwestern Turkey
along the shores of Lake Iznik. It was founded in 14th century BC by
the Macedonian king Antigonus I Monophtalmus. The town was an
impor-tant center in the Late Roman and Byzantine times.
In Islamic culture, a school of Turkish pottery making that flowered
throughout the sixteenth and on to the seventeenth centuries. There may
have been potteries at Iznik, where there was suitable clay, as early
as the twelfth century, but it was not until the late fifteenth century
that Iznik pottery came into its own.