SAZ LEAF TILE FRAGMENT
siliceous ceramic with underglaze painted decoration of a large turquoise saz leaf decorated with a tulip crossing a prunus branch. In three of the corners, parts of red medallions and a composite flower. One hole filled.
15.8 by 27.5 cm
The motif of this tile with the prunus branch and the large saz leaf is generally associated with the Ansari complex at Eyüp. Although the tomb of Eyüp Sultan dates back to 1458, the renovation of 1607-08 associated it with many Iznik tiles dating from the 16th century.
The painted tiles in our pattern are among the finest in the mausoleum (Belgin Demirsar Arli and Ara Altun, Tiles, Treasures of Anatolian Soil, Ottoman Period, Istanbul, 2008, pp.268-9). Many tiles from this series are known, held in public collections such as the Louvre under the inventory number AA 405, as well as at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (accession no. 401:1 to 24-1900), the Gulbenkian, Lisbon (accession no. 1709), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no.64.27.17), the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (accession no. AKM878) and the David Collection, Copenhagen (accession no. 41/1968).
Provenance: Philippe Magloire Collection
