Tulip in Turkish tile and ceramics art

As a plant brought from Central Asia, tulip has become a popular motif in Seljuk tiles since 12th century. Its decorative use reached its peak during the Ottoman era, especially between 16th and 18th centuries, and even a paricular time period has been named after tulip. It has always been of particular significance in Turkish culture and like in many other branches of art, it has attracted much attention from the artists of ceramics due to its solid nature and richness of motifs.In this thesis, the historical development of the use of tulip as a decorative motif in creamics will be investigated. It will be emphasized that today, classical tile ateliers still work on the variations of the tulip motif and that ceramic artists enrich the field with their original work on the tulip motif in terms of formal and decorative innovations.