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Jug with "cloud" motifs
Jug
Jug with "cloud" motifs
Ottoman period
1575–1600
Object Place: Iznik, Turkey
Medium/Technique
Fritware, painted over white slip under a clear glaze
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 23.5 cm (9 1/4 in.) x 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in)
Credit Line
Gift of George Washington Wales
Accession Number85.482
CollectionsAsia, Islamic Art
ClassificationsCeramics
DescriptionAfter 1550, the chromatic range of Iznik ceramics expanded to include an emerald green and a thickly applied, brilliant red that stood up in relief. The colorful tiles and tablewares of this period were most often decorated with stylized flowers but in some cases featured animals, boats, or abstract forms. The motifs on this jug, although they have been termed lips, waves, or clouds, are instead proabably excerpted from a more complex design known as chintamani. Consisting of paired, wavy lines combined with trios of balls, chintamani seems to have had origins both in Buddhist jewel imagery and in the spots and stripes of leopard and tiger skins that clothe the Iranian epic hero, Rustam. With possible apotropaic connotations and uncontestable visual power, chintamani became a decorative staple of sixteenth-century Ottoman art ranging from caftans and carpets to inlaid furniture. After 1550, Iznik artists likewise featured the chintamani design on their tiles and wares, or used its elements--in particular the paired stripes--as independent motifs.
ProvenancePurchased in London by George Washington Wales (b. 1815 - d. 1896), Boston; 1885, gift of George Washington Wales to the MFA. (Accession date: October 13, 1885)