This drawing of dragon entangled in swirling foliage under attack from a lion above while assaulting a phoenix is "certainly the greatest masterpiece of the [saz] style"[1] and is attributed to Şahkulu.[2]Cleveland Museum of ArtTiles covering the Sünnet Odasi (Circumcision Room) in Topkapi Palace are considered to be one of the earliest examples of the saz style. Featuring birds and Chinese qilins among feathery saz leaves, lotus palmettes and rosettes they reproduce designs known from albums (muraqqa) and are dated to c. 1530 on stylistic and technical grounds. This close resemblance between the saz style as practiced in album painting and in ceramics could only have been achieved through the close cooperation between ceramicists and court designers (which is attested in the court account books from 1527-28), and "painted panels betray the hand of a master, who may might well have been Şahkulu himself"[3]
Saz style (Turk.saz yolu) is a style of vegetal ornament and an associated art style from the 16th-century Ottoman Empire.
