Contemporary tile panel based on the planet-zodiac portayals in 11-13th century of Seljuk art

Mankind, who has been trying to fathom the mystery of the sky since antiquity, has attributed various meanings to the objects seen in the sky. Especially the Sun, creator of day and night and the Moon that appears at Sun's absence are idolized the most. In the process of time, the sky, where those godlike entities exist, became an object of interest so people started to observe and keep track of celestial bodies. Since their religious belief asks for it, Muslims needed to measure the time accurately. They found ways to use the sky as a calendar and a clock. Islamic world kept observing the planets and stars and advanced in astronomy in time. Islamic scholars, added their new observations to the fund of knowledge created by Greek astronomers, and designed a fantastic universe for their idolized celestial bodies. In this universe design, stars are identified as animals and objects. Likewise the planets are described in a theanthropic way. It has been believed that twelve fixed constalltions on the zodiac belt and orbiting planets are there to get a message across humankind. So mankind needed astrology to encrypt the messages from the stars. Likewise, astronomy and astrology held considerable importance in the Seljuk culture, which was spread over wide lands in the Islamic geography. Seljuk's had a high opinion of astrologers and astrologers worked as consultants both for court, and commanders during wartimes. Examples of anthropomorphism of divine planets, and the identification of zodiac constellations with different shapes abounded in the 11-13th century Seljuk works of art. Seljuk Empire ruled a wide area and they bring all the artists under their control. These talented artist created amazing art pieces while working under the umbrella of this great empire. In this thesis, the depiction of planet and zodiac constellations were examined as seen in various branches of Seljuk art such as metalwork, relief sculpture, miniature, ceramic and tile. As a result of research conducted, repetitive motifs, figures and scenes in several works of art were determined. In the following text, the depiction of each planet and zodiac constellation was detailed, emphasizing the characteristic features of each. The vast majority of the of the astrologic figurations and designs that are known are taking part in metalwork objects. Tile and ceramic art, which we mainly focus held in a separate subtitle. A contemporary tile panel was designed based on the planet-zodiac constellation portrayals examined. The motifs and figures employed in the panel were composed in consideration with the depiction characteristics and composition styles of the period. Crafted through the underglaze and the low-high relief techniques, the panel features circular tiles of various sizes. Keywords: Seljuk art, planet-zodiac portrays, tile art.