Lot Essay
This is a single niche from a series of multiple niche prayer carpets which were made for the Selimye Mosque in Edirne, the mosque which Sinan himself, the greatest of all Ottoman architects, described as his masterpiece and built between 1569 and 1574. The floor area is massive, the central dome alone having a diameter of 31.5 metres, and is now covered by more recent carpeting containing well over 200 prayer niches. A number of other fragments from the series of safs made for this mosque have survived, showing that the design seen here was only one of a number of variations on a theme used in the building, although it does appear to be the only design with a blue mihrab. A number of fragments of safs of this design are preserved in the Turk ve Islam Museum, Istanbul, one of which is of the complete original width of five niches (Oler, N. (intro.by): Turkish Carpets from the 13th-18th Centuries, Istanbul, 1996, pls.120, 120a, 122, 123 and 123a, pp.164-169). A further fragment of three partial niches is in the Textile Museum, Washington (Mackie, Louise W.: The Splendour of Turkish Weaving Washington D.C., 1974, no.40, pl.p.82
The composition of all the different designs derives very closely from tilework of the second half of the 16th century. Prunus blossom branches enclosing flowering medallions can be seen in Sultan Murad III's Room in the Topkapi Palace, built in 1578, with flowers very similar to those used in the spandrels here filling the lower corners. An even closer similarity can be seen in some of the tile panels of the mausoleum of Murad III, built in 1600, the only change being the exchanging of the upper floral medallion there for a mosque lamp here (z, Tahsin: Turkish Ceramics, Istanbul, n.d., pls. LI and LVI). It is remarkable to see the designs created in the nakkashane being adapted so accurately in Ushak carpets, even including a range of colours some of which are not normally to be found in Ushak weavings.
The composition of all the different designs derives very closely from tilework of the second half of the 16th century. Prunus blossom branches enclosing flowering medallions can be seen in Sultan Murad III's Room in the Topkapi Palace, built in 1578, with flowers very similar to those used in the spandrels here filling the lower corners. An even closer similarity can be seen in some of the tile panels of the mausoleum of Murad III, built in 1600, the only change being the exchanging of the upper floral medallion there for a mosque lamp here (z, Tahsin: Turkish Ceramics, Istanbul, n.d., pls. LI and LVI). It is remarkable to see the designs created in the nakkashane being adapted so accurately in Ushak carpets, even including a range of colours some of which are not normally to be found in Ushak weavings.