Carreau à la frise de palmettes entrelacées Lot n° 14

Iran, Mashhad, Khajeh Rabi mausoleum, Safavid art, 17th century Rectangular ceramic covering tile with painted decoration in manganese, cobalt blue and turquoise, decorated with two floral scrolls with palms and flowers intertwined in mirror, on a cobalt blue background with a black manganese field in the center. Condition: not fractured, small chips on the rim. H. 11,5 cm ; L. 23,5 cm Collection of the Ambassador B. Although the motifs of this tile evoke Ottoman Syrian production, certain aspects of the design, notably the layout of the saz leaves, are far from Ottoman iconography. Three tiles from the same frieze are preserved in the Louvre Museum, deposit of the Decorative Arts, Paris (inv. AD 11288). They are described in the exhibition catalog "Pure Decorations ? Arts de l'Islam, regards du XIXe siècle" (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2007, cat. 118, p. 145), as coming from Turkey or Syria around 1540-1560, but on the site of the Louvre Museum they are attributed to the Khajeh Rabi mausoleum in Mashhad. This splendid octagonal monument surmounted by a turquoise dome is one of the most important Shiite mausoleums in Iran, decorated with ceramic tiles with very particular patterns. Expert L.S.