Falcon in Decoupage, Ottoman, Turkey, 16th or 17th Century

The skilful and delicate technique of decoupage was perfected in the sixteenth century in Ottoman Turkey. One of the most celebrated of these artists was the master Efsançi Mehmed (d.1534), who created an entire garden of paper cut outs measuring twenty centimetres in length and whose fame was such that the grand vizier himself visited the artist at his home.  Whilst Mehmed's works focus on naturalistic floral arrangements others, such as the seventeenth century calligrapher Mehmed bin Ahmed Sirozi, also worked with architectural features (see Atasoy 2002, p.73-89).  The present example exhibits the fine cut-out work of the Ottoman period, the sinuous grape vines, irises, and feathery saz leaves are typical of sixteenth and seventeenth century Turkish work.