A large turquoise and cobalt blue glazed carved pottery tile or panel,  
Timurid western Central...

A large turquoise and cobalt blue glazed carved pottery tile or panel,  
Timurid western Central Asia, second half of 14th century, 

of arched form, with deeply carved floral and foliate designs decorated with turquoise, white, lavender-blue and aubergine glazes, the turquoise-glazed centre with a tri-lobed arch containing scrolling arabesques, split palmettes and lotus blossoms, the blue-glazed spandrels carved en suite, between white borders 

57  x 41 x 7cm. 

Provenance: 

See Sotheby's Islamic Works of Art Evening Sale, 4 October 2011, Lot 40 for a very similar example. 

Though carved and glazed terracotta is a characteristic Timurid technique of the fourteenth century, this panel is unusual for its many levels of relief. The central trefoil palmette is recessed from the surface of the tile and framed by a stepped border comprising a bold white outline that loops elegantly to the top and bottom in contrasting angular and round knot forms, and a turquoise cavetto leading to a lower turquoise inner frame that surrounds the central arabesque of leaves, split-leaves and trefoil flowers and delicate buds on scrolling and interlacing vines. The angular topknot contains a single circular flower bud, while the loop to the bottom frames a six-petalled flower-head. The cobalt arabesques to the spandrels on each side of the central palmette are drawn in a contrasting,more naturalistic style, with the flowers and leaves growing organically upwards, and lush, densely packed stems that bend under the weight of the flowers and leaves. The flowers protrude in yet higher relief above the surface of the whole panel, continuing the play in the levels of relief that is a distinctive feature of this tile panel. The flowers include variegated lotuses and composite lotus palmettes, accompanied by equally variegated leaf forms. A white border frames the whole design. Carved and glazed terracotta is a highly attractive technique that predates the Timurid conquest, one of the earliest examples being a fragment in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London dated AH 722/1322 AD. Unlike other techniques in the wide range employed by the Timurid tile-makers, such as cut-tile mosaic and cuerda seca, carved and glazed terracotta seems only to have been used in the fourteenth century.

Literature:
Frédérique Beaupertius-Bressand, L’or Bleu de
Samarkand: The Blue Gold of Samarkand, 1997.
Gérard Degeorge and Yves Porter, The Art of
the Islamic Tile, 2002.
Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur
and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture
in the Fifteenth Century, 1989.
Roland and Sabrina Michaud and Michael
Barry, Colour and Symbolism in Islamic
Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile-Maker’s
Art, 1995.
Venetia Porter, Islamic Tiles, 1997.
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