Lion and Hound

Turkey (Iznik), circa 1585

Height: 5 cm
Diameter: 26.8 cm

An underglaze-painted dish in polychrome colours of cobalt blue, black, turquoise and sealing wax red against a white slip ground and decorated with a design of stylised animals within floral borders.

The circular main field is composed of two white frolicking animals painted against a vibrant turquoise backdrop. One animal is a stylised lion or sphynx, his legs stretched out as if caught mid-leap as he bounds from left to right. He wears a cobalt trefoil crown and has further teardrop designs to his back and a long blue tail. Strands of hair curl down either side of his face. Above, a slender white hound faces left; its attention drawn by something out of view as it readies itself to pounce. The two beasts are surrounded by stylised coral-like raised red rocks and scrolling cobalt tendrils. They all float against the turquoise ground. The field is framed by a double-lined border and a continuous pattern of cobalt lappets. The plain white cavetto creates a calming space between the chaotic central scene and the frieze of overlapping white cartouches to the edge, each decorated with alternating cobalt and red spots and set against a turquoise ground. To the reverse, alternating stylised floral motifs in blue and turquoise decorate the ground and surround a central group of old labels.

This dish comes from a group of Iznik pottery referred to as “animal style” which were first seen in the 1520s and 1530s and had been inspired by Balkan silverwork, itself popular in the sixteenth century Ottoman court. The style also has affinities with the “animal chase” which was a favoured motif in Seljuk metalwork. A characteristic which also links this “teratological style” to Balkan metalwork is that the animals are not accompanied by humans.1 The creatures are painted as caricatures, creating a sense of playfulness and humour often absent from other Iznik designs. Similar dishes with animals can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum (Inv. no. EA1978.1443), and published in Maria Queiroz Ribeiro, Louças Iznik Pottery, 1996, p. 246; Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik aventure d’une collection, 2005, p. 283; John Carswell, Iznik: Pottery for the Ottoman Empire, 2003, p. 112 and Hülya Bilgi, Iznik: The Ömer Koç Collection, 2015, pp. 526-529.

Provenance:

Ex-collection Stefanos Lagonico (1890-1943), Alexandria
Sotheby’s, Monaco, La Collection Lagonico, 7th December 1991, lot 42

References:

Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, 1989, pp. 256-260.