TURKEY, 16TH CENTURY

This panel is from a hazine, or an individual section element of a side wall of an Ottoman tent. Historical sources, archival records and accounts of foreign observers all comment that "tents with needlework" (or nakishli münakkash) were considered those suitable for the sultan and other members of the dynasty (Nurhan Atasoy, Otag-I Hümayun. The Ottoman Imperial Tent Complex, Istanbul, 2000, p. 111). Appliqué was the most popular of the needlework techniques used and is found on numerous surviving examples from the 16th and 17th century. The central medallion (often with four spandrels), was the main decorative apparatus for the interiors of tents, whilst the exterior was for the most part, plainer. Atasoy comments that there was, however, a great degree of diversity in the way this model was interpreted. The idea of a cusped medallion containing a quatrefoil motif is certainly seen in a number of examples dated to the 17th century. In a number, such as a large panel dated circa 1650 in the Royal Armoury Museum in Stockholm, the medallion is above a band of reciprocal palmettes. In that example a band of cintamani separates the two, whereas our panel utilizes the motif by including small cintamani roundels in each palmette, (Krigsbyte. War Booty, Stockholm, 2007, no.4.1, p.256).