İznik Pottery & Tiles

Overview

İznik pottery and tiles take their name from the Turkish town İznik where they were made. İznik boasted nearby deposits of potter's clay as well as access to firewood to power kilns, making it an ideal place for ceramics production. While İznik saw the production of ceramics for centuries, it became the center of pottery production in Turkey in the 15th century.

At this time, the blue and white porcelain of the Ming Dynasty in China was gaining popularity in Muslim courts. Potters in İznik and Kütahya, another center of ceramics in Turkey, tried to recreate the look of porcelain but without the cost. This led to the creation of new techniques that made İznik ceramics unique (see process and materials section below).

With time, interest in a new style replaced the former fascination with Chinese ceramics. İznik potters looked to the Imperial painting workshop of the court in Istanbul led by Iranian émigré Shah Quii. This style featured gracefully curved botanical motifs.

The 1563 construction of the Rüstem Pasha's mosque, led to what Denny calls "a sort of catalogue of designs, the results of a competition among young artists. This significant building was profoundly to influence architectural decoration for the next 50 years" (Denny, "Turkish Tiles," 12).

İznik tiles were exported to countries including Egypt, Israel, Italy, Greece, and Hungary.

Some other buildings that used İznik tiles include the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, the mausoleum of Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana) (1558), the Great Mosque in Adana (c.1560), the mausoleum of Süleyman I (1567), and the Ottoman Court's main residence, the Topkapı Palace.

İznik pottery production declined in the 17th century, eventually ceasing entirely. Denny explains that the end of the İznik pottery industry was the result of several factors including "catastrophic fires in the potters' quarter, the cumulative and adverse health effects of breathing silica dust from the body and lead vapors from the glazes, the endemic malaria of İznik's lake basin, and a profound change in the Ottoman economy resulting in a collapse in the value to the basic monetary unit" (Denny, Iznik, 54). Another factor leading to the decline in İznik pottery production was the loss of Ottoman patronage.

Process & Materials

A lot of pottery is made from terracotta. However, İznik pottery were made by adding ground up quartz frit (or stone paste) to the clay, which produced whiter and stronger ceramics. Pottery made with this quartz or types of frit clay is known as fritware and looks a lot like porcelain.

The quartz paste was hand-formed into the square tile shape or thrown on a potter's wheel and left to dry for 10-20 days. Once dry, the pieces received and underglaze and were left to dry again, after which time they were fired in a kiln.

The underglaze technique, which came about in İznik in the 15th century took the town from "a center of production of cheap and rather ordinary pottery," according to Walter B. Denny, to "a major center for the production of ceramics of superb technical quality and extraordinary artistry" (Denny, Iznik, 49).

The patterns were then hand-painted on the tiles and pottery. The work received an overglaze and is fired for the final time. The overglaze was a combination of slip (liquified clay) and lead, which lowered the fusion temperature and resulted in a shiny and transparent finish that brought out the full vibrancy of the colored glazes underneath.

At first, İznik pottery was only blue and white, like Ming Dynasty ceramics. The blue glaze was derived from cobalt. By the mid 16th century, İznik ceramics began to include other colors like turquoise (copper-oxide based), black (chrome-based), green, and purple (manganese-based). By 1555 a vibrant red glaze was developed and by 1560, the most difficult color to create, emerald green, was perfected.

The British Museum in London has one of the largest collections of İznik pottery. Other museums with large collections of İznik pottery include the MET, the Smithsonian, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Topkapı Palace Museum, and the Istanbul Archeological Museum.

Uses

İznik tiles were used to decorate the interior of mosques, private homes, and Ottoman mausoleums. 1559 was the first time that İznik tiles were used for Arabic-language inscriptions that are customary in mosques. This was in the mosque created by Chief Architect Sinan for Süleyman I in Istanbul. Denny notes that the popular use of these tiles for religious inscriptions made perfect sense "because of the close relationship in technique between underglaze-painted tiles and the art of pen upon paper" (Denny, Iznik, 199).

Traditional lamps were made from İznik ceramics and given to important mosques and shrines. These lamps were decorated in designs and religious inscriptions. The lamps, since they were ceramic, did not actually produce light, but were symbolic instead, "to remind the worshipper of the presence of God," (Denny, Iznik, 200).

Reemergence of a lost art

Imitation İznik tiles are sold as souvenirs. However, there is a revitalization of the authentic art happening in Turkey. In 1993, the İznikFoundation for Training and Education began which "aims to promote İznik Tiles as well as cultural and artistic values of İznik which retains the world history in its memory." The İznik Foundation Workshop works to revive the traditional art of tile making, allowing the use of modern technology while preserving their authenticity. These hand-made tiles take 70 days to create. The foundation has done the tile work for more than 50 monuments worldwide.

In 2020, work began to build the Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha Mosque in Istanbul, inspired by the 16th century Süleymaniye Mosque. Modern building techniques were combined with traditional motifs in its construction. The mosque includes 5,000 İznik-style tiles created using the drawings of Mehmet Gürsoy, (winner of the 2009 UNESCO "Living Human Treasure" Award).

Works Cited and Suggested Reading

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "İznik ware". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Dec. 2021.

Carswell, John. Iznik Pottery. London: British Museum Press, 1998.

Denny, Walter B. Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Denny, Walter B. "Turkish Tiles of the Ottoman Empire," Archeology, November/December 1979, Vol. 32, No. 6. p 8-15.

History and Iznik Around the World