.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
It has been suggested that the ogival design seen on our velvet panel, was inspired through exposure to Egyptian Mamluk textiles (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans. Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, London, 1982, p.128). A comparable panel on red velvet with simpler ogival trellis enclosing lobed medallions and attributed to circa 1500 sold at Sotheby’s London, 16 April 1986, lot 172.
Panels and cushion covers with similar ogival designs can also be seen in earlier Ottoman paintings such as one from the Surnama of Vehbi dated to circa 1720, now in the Topkapi Saray Museum (inv. A.3595 fol.27a, Weardon, J. M., Turkish Velvets Cushion Covers, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1986, p.1)., That painting depictsa procession, and in the background are two canopies beneath which two similar cushions are propped up.
The spiralling thin floral tendril seen on the background of our velvet recalls the intricate decoration seen on a quilt dated to the 16th century in the Topkapi Musuem (inv. no.13/1091; Nurhan Atasoy Walter B. Denny, Louise W. Mackie and Hülya Tezcan, Ipek. The Crescent and the Rose. Imperial Ottoman Velvets, London, 2001, p.56, no.15) and the blue and white Iznik potteries of the same period (Atasoy, op. cit., p.230, ill.136-9).
Panels and cushion covers with similar ogival designs can also be seen in earlier Ottoman paintings such as one from the Surnama of Vehbi dated to circa 1720, now in the Topkapi Saray Museum (inv. A.3595 fol.27a, Weardon, J. M., Turkish Velvets Cushion Covers, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1986, p.1)., That painting depictsa procession, and in the background are two canopies beneath which two similar cushions are propped up.
The spiralling thin floral tendril seen on the background of our velvet recalls the intricate decoration seen on a quilt dated to the 16th century in the Topkapi Musuem (inv. no.13/1091; Nurhan Atasoy Walter B. Denny, Louise W. Mackie and Hülya Tezcan, Ipek. The Crescent and the Rose. Imperial Ottoman Velvets, London, 2001, p.56, no.15) and the blue and white Iznik potteries of the same period (Atasoy, op. cit., p.230, ill.136-9).