This oil painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) is a study of the interior of the Rüstem Pasha Mosque in Istanbul. The richly decorated interior demonstrates Gérôme’s dedication to architectural accuracy: he reproduces objects from Islamic material culture such as the two monumental candlesticks, the blue and white Iznik tiles, and an Arabic inscription on the wall, in a precise manner. In the upper right part of the painting, Gérôme depicted a stucco and glass window with a geometric motif and pieces of glass that are colourless in the main.

The stucco and glass window in this oil study is composed of larger, mainly colourless pieces of glass and has a purely geometric character. A historical photograph taken by Abdullah Frères (active c.1850–1890) also shows such geometric windows in the interior of the Rüstem Pasha Mosque (Abdullah Frères, The Interior of the Rüstem Paşa Camii, Constantinople, 1880–1893, photographic print, in ‘Mosques, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire’ (album), Abdul Hamid II Collection, Library of Congress, no. 8 / no. 137). Gérôme’s study reveals a window different from that in his oil painting Rüstem Pasha Mosque Istanbul, in which he depicted a colourful stucco and glass window of Egyptian origin with the motif of stylized flowers symmetrically disposed in a vase (IG_149).