Tulips from the Gulbenkian Museum

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 16^th 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 16^th 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