Vase from Iznik, ca. 1520

Ceramic vessels like this vase from Iznik (in antiquity: Nicaea) in modern Turkey are among the most famous Ottoman works of art. Painted around 1520, the vase shows floral patterns in blue and white. It was acquired in 1896 for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Florence, Italy, and was then transferred to the newly founded Islamic Department of the Berlin Museums. From the 15th century onwards, Iznik increasingly produced vessels with different colored floral decorations, which were glazed without color. From the 19th century onwards, more and more Europeans began to collect Ottoman artworks of this kind.

Vase (ceramic vessel), color photography, ca. 1520, photographer: Johannes Kramer; source: Museum of Islamic Art of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Ident. No. I. 1994.36, https://id.smb.museum/object/1527349, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 EN), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/de/deed.en.