tile panel

A rectangular panel composed from square tiles painted with a polychrome decoration on a white ground and assembled to make a niche motif. Under a horse-shoe shaped niche slightly posed on the edges of capitals and columns, an arabesque-like pattern developing from a vase flanked by cypresses, three superposed pairs of floral scrolls between which grows a big flower and from which come out smaller tinges filling the surface of the panel. Sprays of flowers in the spandrels.
Mounted in a wooden frame.

The rectangular panel composed of square tiles is dominated by a yellow and brown horseshoe-shaped arch supported by two columns and two capitals. A dense, symmetrical floral design fills the area under the arch emerging from a vase standing on a base. The vase is flanked by cypress trees. Three lotus-like flowers on sturdy stems, one on the top of the other, form a middle axis. On each side of the axis a tendril composed of three scrolls emerges from the vase. Each scroll is filled with a large blossom, of which the two that face each other are similar: the lower pair are rosettes, the two in the middle are lotuses, and the top pair are peonies. The remaining surface under the arch and the spandrels above are filled with sprays of various flowers. Above the arch is a circle containing a motif of a half-moon. The design is painted in an opaque orange-yellow, two tones of green, dark and light blue and brown on an opaque white glaze. The panel is set in a wooden frame.
In the AH 11th and 12th / AD 17th and 18th centuries, faience (glazed coloured earthenware) became the dominant element of the Tunisian architectural decoration and the horseshoe-shaped arch called mihrab (prayer niche) an unmistakable feature of most tile panels. The more naturalistic floral decoration and the representations of cypresses are due to the influence of Ottoman art.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;10;en&cp]

How date and origin were established:
This tile panel shows close similarities to panels made by a faience atelier working from about the mid-12th–mid-13th / mid-18th–mid-19th centuries.

How Object was obtained:
There is no information about acquisition.

How provenance was established:
The style of decoration was characteristic of ateliers in Tunis.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;10;en&cp]