Large 19th-century Iznik-style majolica plate

Large 19th-century Iznik-style majolica plate, 36.5 cm. In the 16th century, having observed the great success of Italian majolica, the ceramic center of Iznik in Turkey decided to try to counter this dominance by starting a production that, contravening local rules that prohibited the depiction of people in artistic works, attempted to imitate the Italian production of historiated ceramics. Memory of this attempt had been lost until an Iznik plate in blue monochrome with a human representation was found in the deposits of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Surely following this discovery, an unidentified Italian furnace created the polychrome plate that I publish.