When in Lisbon the Gulbenkian Museum is a must. Calouste Gulbenkian
(1869 – 1955) was a British entrepreneur of Armenian origin. All his life he
collected a wide range of art objects. Ceramics, ancient Egyptian art, paintings,
furniture….
At first (part of) his collection was kept in his house in Paris . But when the Germans
invaded France he fled to Vichy with the French
Government. Later in 1942 he went on to Portugal . For a long time it was
not sure where the collection would be housed. Some of it was in the British Museum ,. Later on part went to National
Gallery of Art in Washington .
Finally 14 years after his death the unique fact happened that
a museum was especially built to house a collection. The Calouste Gulbenkian
Museum opened in 1969.
All sorts of art object to be seen in the museum. Here I
would like to show some of the Iznik pottery from
the 16th century that shows tulips. Under the patronage of the
Ottoman court the Iznik pottery “flowered”. After the Persian city of Tabriz was captured by Sultan Selim I, he brought local
artists from Tabriz
over to Iznik to work in the ceramic industry.
During the 16th century colours were added to the
initially Blue-White porcelain. First turquoise, later pastel shades of sage green and pale purple. In
the middle of the century a typical red (bole red) replaced the purple
and the sage green became emerald.
In Iznik of today they still produce tiles with the
beautiful floral patterns.
Read more about the town of Iznik
and Iznik tiles
Read more about the collection
Incredible the light you got in that darkness! Beautiful pictures and beautiful collection.
ReplyDelete