Dish with boat

This concave dish is decorated with a ship with three masts sailing on a turbulent sea, suggested by stylised rolling waves of blue, red and white.

The details of the ship are meticulously rendered.  The hull, sails and rigging are delicately depicted in a great variety of colours. Chinese clouds and fish complete the design. A wave-and-rock design decorate the rim.

The form of the piece is relatively common in Iznik ceramics at the end of the sixteenth century. Numerous concave dishes with flattened rims date from the reign of Murad III (1574-1595). A variant of this form, with a bracket-lobed rim[1], was also in vogue at the time, having been popular originally in the 1540s-1550s. 

The paste is very rich in quartz and lead frit, so too is the slip layer and the glaze over the painted decoration. This composition gave a brilliance to the objects which ensured the reputation of these new ceramics created in Iznik at the end of the fifteenth century. Iznikware was prized in the West from the end of the sixteenth century. Its arrival in Italy soon inspired local production there[2].

The colours employed (blue, green, red and black) help to date the piece. The ceramicist’s palette expanded throughout the sixteenth century. The blues and whites of its early development were supplemented by turquoise, sage green, mauve and grey during the first half of the century, and finally, red (often associated with emerald green) introduced in 1557, the date when it first appeared in the decoration of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

The ship occupies the entire background and cavetto. The only earlier example of a dish with the motif of a monumental ship dates from between 1535-1545[3]. However, a veritable series of plates very similar to the Copenhagen plate was produced in the beginning of the seventeenth century[4].

The motif of the ship became popular in the last quarter of the sixteenth century; it comprised the decorative arrangement of small, mostly sailing, ships, decorating pieces in open[5] and closed[6] form. In the Islamic arts, the ship motif appears in societies where navigation plays an important role: in Ifriqiya in tenth century[7], in Fatimid Egypt[8] or in Nasrid Spain[9].

The form of the ships is reminiscent of those in the Ottoman fleet, as they appeared on the Atlas executed by the admiral and cartographer, Pir-i Reis,[10] in 1513, and in several documentary and topographical miniatures[11]. These ships also appear in the views painted by European artists during their visits to Istanbul[12]. The navy was played a primary role in establishing the military power of the Empire and was a principal player in the conflicts for the control of the Mediterranean.

The rim of the dish adopts a Chinese motif popular on Yuan ceramics[13], which was probably brought to the Ottoman Empire with Chinese imports and objects seized after the conquest of TabrizIran, 1514). The clouds, tchi, above the ship are also of Chinese inspiration. Widely present in the Timurid idiom in the fifteenth century[14], they appear frequently in Ottoman decorative arts, including, ceramics[15], textile[16] and bookbinding[17]. The spirals representing waves demonstrate an Iranian influence, particularly from Shiraz of the fourteenth century[18]. This influence is apparent in Ottoman miniatures from the first half of the sixteenth century when Iranian artists settled in Istanbul.

Also apparent on the boat are motifs drawn from the floral repertoire popular in the second half of the sixteenth century, for example, the garland of small white flowers on a red ground depicted on the gunwales of the hull[19].

[2] Dish with floral decoration, earthenware, painted over opaque stanniferous glaze under transparent glaze, Veneto, Italy, 1633, Sèvres, musée national de céramique, inv. 4617

[3] Dish with boat, Iznik, Turkey, circa 1535-1545, fritware, painted decoration on slip under transparent lead glaze, London, Victoria and Albert Museum,  inv.713-1902.

[4] See, for example, plate held in the Benaki Museum, Athens, dated 1625-1650, inv. 35.

[5] Dish with ships, fritware, transparent lead glaze over painted decoration on slip, Iznik, Turkey c. 1570-1575, Paris, musée du Louvre, inv.7880.82.

[6] Water bottle, fritware, transparent lead glaze over painted decoration on slip, Iznik, Turkey c. 1575-1585, Benaki Museum, Athens inv. 51.

[7] Bacini with boat, ceramic painted on slip under transparent glaze, Ifriqiya, tenth century, Pisa, Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, inv.

[8] Dish with boat, Egypt, tenth century, lustreware, Cairo, MuseumIslamic Art, inv.7900 of

[9] Basin with boat, painting under glaze, lustreware, Spain, Manises, 1380-1430, Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, KGM 1906,99.

[10] Atlas of the world by Pir-i Reis, ink and colours on gazelle skin, Turkey, 1513, Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, inv. R. 1633 mük.

[11] Port of Lepanto, Turkey, c. 1540-1550, opaque colours on paper, Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, inv. 17/378.

[12] Melchior Lorichs, View of Constantinople from Galata and of the North of the Golden Horn, first half of 1559, ink on paper, with wash, Leiden, Universiteite Bibliotheek, BPL 1758.

[13] Basin with birds, blue and white porcelain, China, Yuan dynasty, middle fourteenth century, Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, inv. TKS 15/1387.

[14] Royal banquet, right page of frontispiece from Shahnama, Iran, Shiraz, 1444, Cleveland, Museum of Art, inv. 45169.

[15] Mosque lamp, Iznik, Turkey c. 1512, fritware, painting on silicate slip under transparent lead glaze, Istanbul, Archaeological Museum of Cinili Kiosk, inv. 41/2. Photo in soliman p.114 n°116.

[16] Panel with mandorlas and Chinese clouds, Turkey, sixteenth century, silk and gold thread, lampas, satin background, Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, inv. 13765. Photo in soliman p.243, n°260. .

[17] Binding of Koran, Turkey, c. 1530-1540, gold and opaque colours, lacquered, Istanbul, Library of Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, inv. EH 77. Photo in Soliman p.124 n°130

[18] Shahnama, Shiraz, Iran, 1370, Istanbul, Library of Topkapi Sarayi, inv. H1511. trouver illustration exacte sinon p.63 ;

[19] Jug with flower decoration, Iznik, Turkey third quarter of sixteenth century, fritware, painted on slip  under lead glaze, Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, inv. 14,64. Photo in Soliman p.265, n°287.