20. Iran, probably Isfahan 24. Kütahya, Turkey Archway with scene of paired Plate with poppy and saz leaf archers * designs 17th century 19th century Four-piece tile assemblage; stone Stone paste with polychrome paste mosaic with polychrome painting under clear glaze glaze over white slip Diameter: 10 1/4 inches 39 x 55 inches 2012.125.18 T2010.123.61 25. Kütahya, Turkey 21. Iran, probably Isfahan Plate with abstracted floral design Tile with scene of figures in a 19th century garden Stone paste with polychrome 17th century painting under clear glaze Stone paste with polychrome Diameter: 12 inches painting under clear glaze in 2011.140.42 cuerda seca technique 26. Kütahya, Turkey 12 3/4 x 10 ⅜ inches Plate with design of four tulips 2011.140.26 19th century 22. Iran Stone paste with polychrome Beehive cover with design of two painting under clear glaze peacocks Diameter: 11 inches 19th century 2011.140.45 32 Stone paste with polychrome 27. Kütahya, Turkey painting under clear glaze Covered bottle with floral design Diameter: 8 3/4 inches painting under clear glaze 34. Damascus, Syria Mid-19th century 2011.140.21 12 x 6 ⅜ inches Mosque lamp with floral designs Stone paste with polychrome 2011.140.47 Mid-19th century 23. Iznik, Turkey painting under clear glaze White glass with enamel painting Plate with poppy, tulip, and saz leaf 12 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches 29. Kütahya, Turkey 12 3/4 x 9 ⅜ inches Hexagonal tile with stylized floral designs 2012.125.11 2011.140.55 c. 1575 designs and Arabic inscription Stone paste with polychrome 28. Kütahya, Turkey Late 19th century 35. Mark of Ohannessian, a Kütahya painting under clear glaze Bottle vase with hexagonal floral Stone paste with polychrome potter medallion design Diameter: 8 5/8 inches painting under clear glaze Possibly by David Ohannessian Late 19th century 2012.36.11 9 x 10 1/4 inches (Armenian, 1884–1952) Stone paste with polychrome 2012.125.20 Jerusalem Kűtahya vase 1918/1948 30. Kütahya, Turkey Stone paste with polychrome Square tile with figures of saint and painting under clear glaze child in a garden and Armenian 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches inscription * 2011.140.50 19th century 7 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches Stonepaste with polychrome Cover: 20 (detail) painting under clear glaze Inside flap: 27 T2010.123.17 31. Kütahya, Turkey Round tile with Madonna and infant This dossier presentation of works from Jesus the Portland Art Museum permanent Stone paste with polychrome collection is organized and curated by painting under clear glaze Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D., The Arlene and Ceramics Diameter: 10 1/4 inches Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art, 2012.125.21 and is funded in part by the Exhibition Series Sponsors. 32. Kütahya, Turkey of the Islamic World Mosque ball with Arabic inscription Early 19th century Stone paste with polychrome The Ottis Collection painting under clear glaze 6 x 6 1/2 inches 2012.125.14 March 9 – October 27, 2013 33. Kütahya, Turkey Mosque ball with stylized floral design Mid-19th century Stone paste with polychrome painting under clear glaze 6 1/4 x 5 inches Portland Art Museum, Oregon 2012.135.15 34 5. Iran Medieval Innovations Islamic Ceramics in the CHECKLIST Large storage jar with four applied Era of Global Empires bulls’ heads Ceramics of the Islamic World From the mid-eighth to the mid-thirteenth century, Dimensions: height precedes width Possibly 13th/15th century the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad nurtured an From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, when or diameter, precedes depth. Earthenware with turquoise The Ottis Collection Works are identified by place of alkaline glaze and incised leaf unprecedented flowering of Islamic and Arabic Christian Europe was caught up in a succession of origin using modern country names. design All works gifts of M. Larry and literature, philosophy, science, and culture. While wars and colonial expansion, the Islamic world was 28 1/2 x 19 inches Nancy B. Ottis; promised gifts indicated 2011.140.8 some Abbasid scientists were inventing new recipes ruled by three vast and stable empires: the Mughals by an asterisk. 6. Iraq for colored glass (cat. 11, 12), others were perfecting of northern India and Pakistan, the Safavids and later Oil lamp the technique for lustreware (cat. 18, 19). By apply- the Qajars of Greater Iran, and the Ottomans, whose 1. Iran 9th/10th century Large storage jar with incised Earthenware with iron slip painting The Portland Art Museum is home to countless private collections—dona- Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Binney 3rd. When viewed adjacent to Chinese ceramics or ing a mixture of clay slip, metallic compounds, and territory at its greatest extent included the Balkans snake design under semi-translucent white glaze 9th/10th century tions made by individuals and families over the course of more than 120 European decorative arts, the Ottis ceramics will invite nuanced explorations vinegar to a glazed surface and then firing the piece in southeast Europe, Northern Africa, much of the 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches Earthenware with turquoise 2012.125.3 years, each one enhancing the Museum’s capacity to tell meaningful stories of international artistic exchange across centuries of time. The gift marks in a reducing kiln—one that cuts back on oxygen at Arabian peninsula, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. alkaline glaze 27 1/4 x 16 3/4 inches 7. Iran about art of the past and present. The M. Larry and Nancy B. Ottis collection one of those occasions when a single donor’s vision and generosity will have a crucial point in the firing process—Islamic potters All three empires are justly renowned for 2011.140.1 Oil lamp with animal handle of Islamic ceramics is an ongoing gift of nearly 300 vessels and tiles crafted a transformative impact on the public’s access to global visual culture. could create ceramics that shimmered like gold and monumental public architecture. While the Mughals 10th/12th century 2. Iran Earthenware with traces of 19 in kilns from Iran in the east to Morocco in the west. Collectively, these works An avid student of history, the late Larry Ottis became interested in copper. As Islam forbids the use of gold and silver had access to sandstone and marble, the Safavids Large storage jar with rope turquoise glaze appliqué span more than a millennium of human history. The Ottis collection greatly antique ceramics in the 1960s as a young ophthalmology resident in Panama. eating and drinking vessels, lustreware was highly and Ottomans built with brick and rubble faced 5 x 3 1/2 x 4 inches c. 900 2012.125.4 expands the Museum’s holdings of Islamic art, previously represented by a He subsequently built a collection of pre-Columbian pottery that he eventu- sought after for luxury tableware. From its original with brilliantly colored, high-fired ceramic tiles. For Earthenware with turquoise 11. Iran 17. Nishapur, Iran 14 alkaline glaze 8. Iran or Iraq Bottle Plate small but superb group of Persian miniatures donated in the 1970s by ally donated to the Denver Art Museum. Later, while maintaining an ophthal- home in Iraq, lustreware spread to Iran and Egypt, mosques, madrassas, and other religious establish- 26 x 15 inches Oil lamp * 10th century 11th century mology practice in Grants Pass, Oregon, he was drawn to Persian and Turkish and later still to Spain and Renaissance Italy. ments, tile designs were restricted to a vocabulary of geometric or abstracted 2010.35.5 9th/11th century Bluish-green glass Earthenware with orange slip, Earthenware with traces of 9 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches splashed glaze, and incised rugs in auction catalogues. A trip to Istanbul in 1988 ignited his passion for A more common type of pottery that flourished in the tenth through vegetal forms, often accompanied by calligraphic inscriptions (cat. 29). Tiles 3. Iran turquoise glaze 2010.35.1 designs Storage jar 1 1 3 ⅜ x 12 ⅞ inches Islamic ceramics. For the next 22 years, with Nancy at his side, Larry criss- twelfth centuries was unglazed molded earthenware, often with beautiful for princely palaces, on the other hand, might include human figures in genre 4 /4 x 4 /2 inches 12. Iran 10th/12th century T2010.123.107 2010.35.7 crossed Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iran, Israel, Uzbekistan, and Morocco, seeking relief calligraphic inscriptions bearing good wishes for the health and prosper- scenes or episodes from classical poetry or legend (cat. 20, 21). In Turkey, Earthenware with black splashes Saddle flask under turquoise alkaline glaze 9. Iran or Iraq 12th century 18. Iran, probably Kashan out new treasures. ity of the owner (cat. 13, 14). where the potters themselves were Armenian Christians, we find tiles espe- 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches Oil lamp * Bluish-green glass Bottle with scene of a horse This special dossier presentation unveils highlights of the Ottis At the easternmost edge of the Abbasid sphere of influence, the town cially commissioned for the Christian and Jewish minority communities 2011.140.3 9th/11th century 10 1/4 x 6 3/4 x 4 inches caravan * Earthenware with turquoise glaze 2010.35.2 Early 13th century 4. Iran donation, with special emphasis on the collection’s unique strengths. Upon of Nishapur—today in northeastern Iran—was home to a thriving ceram- (cat. 30, 31). 1 5/8 x 4 3/4 x 3 inches Stone paste with lustre painting Storage jar with four loop handles * 13. Iran over opaque white glaze Larry’s death in 2011, we found ourselves bereft of his warmth, humor, and ics industry that eagerly absorbed influences from China’s Tang dynasty Iznik was the principal center of Ottoman ceramic production from T2010.123.110 Jug with relief floral and gem 12th/13th century 10 1/2 x 6 inches designs * unequalled knowledge of the objects he had assembled. His love for Islamic (618–907) (cat. 15–17). The Nishapur potters lacked the finer grades of clay the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth century. European and American Earthenware with turquoise 10. Iran or Iraq T2010.123.198 alkaline glaze and carved bands of Oil lamp * 10th/12th century culture will live on, thanks to Nancy’s commitment to his memory and her available in China and were unable to replicate the high temperatures of Tang collectors have long treasured the bold colors and graphic designs of Iznik stripe and wave designs 9th/11th century Molded unglazed earthenware 19. Kashan, Iran 22 x 12 inches Earthenware with cobalt blue 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches Star tile with figure of a woman ongoing stewardship of the collection. The Museum is deeply grateful to the kilns. Nonetheless, they developed sophisticated tri-color splashed glazes, ware, and the Ottises are no exception (cat. 23). However, the Ottis collec- T2010.123.1 glaze T2010.123.83 seated in a garden and Arabic 1 1 1 inscription * Ottises for sharing with the public this exceptional and important gift. sgraffito decoration (scratching designs through different layers of glaze), tion is truly exceptional in its abundance of vessels and tiles manufactured at 1 /4 x 4 /2 x 2 /2 inches 14. Iran T2010.123.111 Early 13th century and underglaze slip-painted wares remarkably like their Chinese prototypes. Kütahya, the site that superseded Iznik in the last quarter of the seventeenth Jug with relief Arabic inscription * Stone paste with cobalt and lustre 10th/12th century painting over opaque white glaze century. The Kütahya potters excelled at painting complex floral and geomet- Molded unglazed earthenware The Conservative Tradition: Monochrome-Glazed Wares 8 ⅞ x 8 1/2 inches 8 1 4 ric designs in a dazzling new array of colors (cat. 24–33, 35). / x 4 inches T2010.123.21 T2010.123.84 The Ottis collection is exceptionally rich in Iranian turquoise-blue, alkaline- Although this dossier presentation can only hint at the scope and vari- glazed storage jars of the ninth through fifteenth centuries (cat. 1–5). From 15. Nishapur, Iran ety of the Ottis collection, each and every example bears witness to the depth Bowl * its first appearance in ancient Egypt, where it was applied to small, decorative of thought and research that informed each purchase. The Ottis legacy for 10th century items, turquoise glaze spread to neighboring regions. Admired for its seem- Earthenware with splashed three- Portland and Oregon is an Islamic ceramics collection of national significance. color glaze and incised designs ingly magical ability to transform objects of humble clay into iridescent, jewel- 4 x 13 ⅛ inches like forms, the glaze became popular for vessels with important functions in T2010.123.97 daily life, such as oil lamps and storage jars for food. In Syria, Iraq, and Iran, Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D. 16. Nishapur, Iran The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art Fluted bowl turquoise-glazed jars and lamps were manufactured continuously from pre- 10th century Islamic times until at least the fifteenth century, with little change in form or Carved earthenware with black slip painting under iridescent technique. The five jars in the exhibition were found in Iran, often still in use bluish-green glaze 3 3/4 x 9 inches in the countryside. Equally ancient are the five small oil lamps with turquoise 2011.140.9 and cobalt glazes (cat. 6–10). 17 5 6 11