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The Ottoman love of flowers was legendary, and the "Golden Age" of Ottoman art arrived decorated in tulips, roses, carnations, and hyacinths. Tiles, plates, and vases were often painted in designs framed by cloud bands, flickering stripes, and geometric patterns.
The 16th century interval of the great and wise sultan, Suleyman, continues to be known as the “Golden Age” by reason of the tremendous geographic expansion, trade, and economic growth that occurred during this time – but also for the virtues of the Sultan Suleyman himself. Under his just and charismatic leadership, artistic and cultural production climbed to extraordinary heights. Suleyman, affectionately referred to by his contemporaries as the “law-giver,” was in so many ways the enlightened center of this virtual cornucopia of human achievement.
Iznik ceramics have come to define Ottoman art, and rightly so. The Ottomans over the run of history commissioned hundreds of dinnerware pieces and countless thousands of tiles from the Iznik artisans, thus providing craftsmen with a continuous push to sharpen artistic skill.
In the 15th century, the artisans received commissions from European nobility for the incorporation of a family crests within Iznik designs. During the time of Suleyman, the “Golden Horn,” or Suleyman’s imperial coat of arms, became assimilated into design motifs.
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Iznik, a town of not more than five or six thousand inhabitants, was instrumental in making Ottoman art a valued commodity across Europe and beyond. At beginning of the Byzantine era, ceramic production had already long played a key role in the lives of Iznik villagers. Work that was once similar in form and design to that made in other surrounding regions, however, under Ottoman patronage quickly became distinguished.
The town had been previously turning out mainly pots and vessels. After the Ottomans arrived, Iznik production was greatly expanded to meet the needs of the sultans. In many ways, the Ottoman sultans transformed the town of Iznik into an Imperial tile works for the manufacture of enormous quantities of wall tile. These tiles were eventually to decorate the many palaces, mosques, schools, and other institutional structures built by the Ottomans.
Blue and white Chinese porcelain and celadon ware was popular at the Ottoman court, and these styles therefore also had a significant influence on Iznik potters, who quickly mastered the imported designs and then altered them to suit their own aesthetic preferences.
The new style of decoration, and an accompanying shift to brighter under-glazed colors, with time replaced the tradition of black outlining, which up until then had characterized the regional style. Iznik pottery then went through a series of color design changes, beginning with combination of blue and white, but soon to include shades of turquoise, muted purple and olive green, and later, the distinctively Turkish color combination of cobalt blue, dark leaf-green, and earthy red.
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