Renowned for intricate designs and lustrous colors, Iznik tiles are thought-about the head of Ottoman artwork, gracing monuments comparable to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace.
The tiles come from Iznik, a small city close to Istanbul with a ceramics custom spanning two millennia also referred to as Nicaea, which hosted a landmark Christian gathering in 325 AD that Pope Leo will have fun when he visits this month.
Under the patronage of the Ottoman Empire, Iznik’s artisans flourished, acquiring “remarkable achievements” by the mid-Sixteenth century, mentioned Professor Ezgi Yalcinkaya, head of conventional Turkish arts at Usak University.
They developed a high-quartz stonepaste, generally known as fritware, yielding a shiny white background perfect for adorning, clear glazes and vibrant colors, together with a “coral red” for floral designs which “created a distinctive new style”, she advised AFP.
But when the Ottoman Empire started to say no within the seventeenth century, the workshops began to shut and the artisans, primarily Greeks and Armenians who knew the formulation for the stonepaste, the colors and glazes, died off.
“Knowledge was passed entirely through master-apprentice relationships. The specific formulas — especially for the coral red and fritware composition — were oral secrets,” she mentioned.
“Without documentation, the expertise died with the last masters. By the 18th-19th centuries, the technical knowledge was largely lost.”
Centuries later, an economics professor known as Isil Akbaygil with a ardour for Ottoman artwork arrange the Iznik Foundation in 1993.
Her analysis undertaking introduced collectively consultants and lecturers to rediscover the misplaced secrets and techniques of Iznik’s prized ceramics.
‘No recipe left’
“What was forgotten about isn’t so much the raw materials themselves as how they’re combined… the firing temperatures and methods to achieve the distinctive coral red,” mentioned Kerim Akbaygil, a basis board member and one among her sons.
“The foundation spent almost two years trying to get the right recipe, working with different universities like MIT, Princeton and Istanbul Technical University,” he mentioned.
“It was trial and error but we finally got it right,” he advised AFP on the basis’s headquarters, a country red-tiled constructing set in lush gardens lined with richly-coloured tile paths.
“Iznik tiles are the only tiles in the world that use up to 85 percent quartz which we use in the raw material along with clay and silica,” he mentioned.
They are underglazed with a excessive ratio of quartz giving them a “brightness and depth that are characteristic of Iznik tiles,” he mentioned.
Decorated with steel oxides whose colors are rendered vivid by means of the firing course of, they’re then coated with a quartz-based glaze generally known as “sur” — Turkish for “secret”.
‘The fantastic thing about shock’
Jars of colors — from vibrant cobalt blues and emerald greens to coral reds — line the cabinets inside a big higher room the place a dozen ladies sit portray tiles or transferring designs onto plain white tableware.
Many are portray an unlimited mural for a prepare station — one of many basis’s trademark commissions, its gorgeous tile facades a particular characteristic of the Istanbul metro and past.
Adding shadow to a large fig leaf, Yasemin Sahin, 42, admits she’s captivated by the transformation that happens with firing.
“I’m painting this but I don’t know what it will look like when it comes out of the kiln after it’s glazed. It’s always a surprise, that’s the beauty of it,” she advised AFP.
Three many years on and Iznik tiles at the moment are seen on buildings throughout Turkey, from faculties to espresso outlets, with the muse’s worldwide attain spreading kind Japan to Canada.
“Back in the day, Iznik tiles were sponsored by the palace, so the only place you could see them was inside the palaces or mosques. Now that taboo is broken,” Akbaygil says.
Yalcinkaya mentioned the collective significance of rediscovering the misplaced formulation was “tremendous” and the results of in depth analysis by many lecturers and students.
“These efforts revived a living tradition,” she advised AFP.
“Ottoman ceramicists continuously innovated from the 14th-20th centuries. Today’s work continues this spirit, ensuring the tradition remains alive and relevant, which is the most authentic way to preserve cultural heritage.”
Originally printed on France24