Ottoman miniature
Encyclopedia
Ottoman Miniature or Turkish miniature was an art form in the Ottoman Empire
, which can be linked to the Persian miniature
tradition, as well as strong Chinese artistic influences. It was a part of the Ottoman Book Arts together with illumination
(tezhip), calligraphy (hat), marbling paper (ebru) and bookbinding (cilt). The words taswir or nakish were used to define this art in Ottoman language. The studios the artists worked in were called Nakkashane. The miniatures were not signed. This is partly because of the world view of the tradition that rejected individualism. Another reason is that the works were not created entirely by one person: The head painter designed the composition of the scene and his apprentices drew the contours (which is called tahrir) with black or colored ink and then painted the miniature without creating an illusion of third dimension. The head painter, and much more often the scribe of the text were named and depicted in some of the manuscripts. The understanding of perspective is different from that of European Renaissance Painting tradition and the scene depicted may include different time periods and spaces. The miniatures followed closely the context of the book, resembling illustrations of the picture books today. The colors were obtained by ground powder pigments mixed with egg-white and later with diluted gum arabic. The colors were brilliant. Contrasting colors were used side by side with warm colors that reminds us of the 20th century avant-garde painters' approach in color selection. The color nuances of the same shade were applied in a masterly fashion. The most used colors were bright red, scarlet, green and different shades of blue.
The world-view underlying the Ottoman miniature painting was also different from that of European Renaissance Painting tradition. The painters did not mainly aim to depict the human beings and other living or non-living beings realistically, although increasing realism is found from the later 16th century onwards. Like Plato
, they despised mimesis
because according to the world view of sufism
the appearance of worldly beings was not permanent and worth devoting effort to. The Ottoman artists wanted to hint at an infinite and transcendent reality (that is Allah, according to the Sufism's pantheistic point of view) with their paintings so they stylized and abstracted everything depicted.
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During the reign of Mehmed II
a court workshop called Nakkashane-i Rum, that also functioned as an academy, was founded in Topkapi Palace
in Istanbul
to create illuminated picture manuscripts for the Sultan and the courtiers.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Herat
workshop of Persian miniaturists was closed and its famous instructor Behzad (or Bihzad) went to Tabriz
. After the Ottoman emperor Yavuz Sultan Selim
briefly conquered Tabriz in 1514, taking many manuscripts back to Istanbul, the "Nakkashane-i Irani" (The Persian Academy of Painting) was founded in Topkapi Palace for imported Persian artists. The artists of these two painting academies formed two different schools of painting: The artists in Nakkashane-i Rum were specialized in documentary books, like the Shehinshahname, showing the public, and to some extent the private, lives of rulers, their portraits and historical events; Shemaili Ali Osman-portraits of rulers; Surname-pictures depicting weddings and especially circumcision festivities; Shecaatname-wars commanded by pashas. The artists in Nakkashanei-i Irani" specialized in traditional Persian poetic works like the Shahnameh
, the Khamsa of Nizami, containing Layla and Majnun
and the Iskendername or Romance of Alexander, Humayunname, animal fables and anthologies. There were also scientific books on botany and animals, alchemy, cosmography and medicine; technical books; love letters; books about astrology and dream reading.
The reigns of Suleyman the Magnificent and especially Selim II
(1566-1574) in the second half of 16th century were the golden age of the Ottoman miniature with its own characteristics and authentic qualities. Nakkas Osman
was the most important miniature painter of the period, while Nigari developed portrait painting.
Matrakci Nasuh
was a famous miniature painter during the reigns of Yavuz Sultan Selim and Suleyman the Magnificent. He created a new painting genre called topographic painting. He painted cities, ports and castles without any human figures and combined scenes observed from different viewpoints in one picture.
During the reign of Selim II (1566-1574) and Murat III's (1574-1595), the classical Ottoman miniature style was created. The renowned miniature painters of the period were Nakkas Osman, Ali Celebi, Molla Kasim, Hasan Pasa and Lutfi Abdullah.
By the end of the 16th century and in the beginning of 17th century, especially in the reign of Ahmed I
, single page miniatures intended to be collected in albums or murakkas
were popular. They had existed at the time of Murat III, who ordered an album of them from the painter Velijan. In 17th century, miniature painting was also popular among the citizens of Istanbul. Artists under the name of "Bazaar Painters" who worked with other artisans in the bazaars of Istanbul (Carsi Ressamlari - a definition made by Metin And, in "17. Yüzyıl Türk çarşı ressamları." Tarih ve Toplum, no. 16 (April 1985): 40-44) at the demand of citizens.
A new cultural genre known in Ottoman history as the "Tulip Period" occurred during the reign of Ahmed III
. Some art historians attribute the birth of the unique style called "Ottoman Baroque" to this period. The characteristics of the period carried the influences of French baroque. In this period, a grand festival for the circumcision rituals for the sons of Ahmed III was organized. Artisans, theatre groups, clowns, musicians, trapeze dancers and citizens joined in the festivities. A book called Surname-i Vehbi tells about this festival. This book was depicted by Levni
or Abdülcelil Levni Çelebi (the name Levni is related to the Arabic word levn (color) and was given to the artist because of the colorful nature of his paintings) and his apprentices. His style of painting was influenced by Western painting and very different from the earlier miniature paintings.
After Levni, Westernization of Ottoman culture continued and, with the introduction of printing press and photography, no more illuminated picture manuscripts were produced. From then on, wall paintings or oil paintings on toils were popular. So the miniature painting lost its function.
After a period of crisis in the beginning of the twentieth century, miniature painting was accepted as a "decorative art" by the intellectuals of the newly founded Turkish Republic, and in 1936, a division called "Turkish Decorative Arts" was established in the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, which included miniature painting together with the other Ottoman Book Arts. Suheyl Unver educated many artists following the tradition of Ottoman Book Arts.
Contemporary miniature artists include Ömer Faruk Atabek, Sahin Inaloz, Cahide Keskiner, Gülbün Mesara, Nur Nevin Akyazici, Ahmet Yakupoğlu, Nusret Çolpan
, Orhan Dagli and many others from the new generation. Contemporary artists do not consider miniature painting as merely a "decorative art" but as a fine art form. Different from the traditional masters of the past, they work individually and sign their works. Also, their works are not illustrating books anymore but being exhibited in fine art galleries.
Aşk Estetiği (The Aesthetics of Divine Love) Beşir Ayvazoğlu
Turkish Miniature Painting F. Çağman
Turkish Miniatures from the 13th to the 18th century R. Ettinghausen
Ottoman miniatures and its downfall form the theme of the novel My Name is Red
by Orhan Pamuk
.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, which can be linked to the Persian miniature
Persian miniature
A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts...
tradition, as well as strong Chinese artistic influences. It was a part of the Ottoman Book Arts together with illumination
Ottoman illumination
Turkish or Ottoman illumination covers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets in muraqqa or albums, as opposed to the figurative images of the Ottoman miniature. In Turkish it is called “tezhip”, an Arabic word which means “ornamenting with gold”...
(tezhip), calligraphy (hat), marbling paper (ebru) and bookbinding (cilt). The words taswir or nakish were used to define this art in Ottoman language. The studios the artists worked in were called Nakkashane. The miniatures were not signed. This is partly because of the world view of the tradition that rejected individualism. Another reason is that the works were not created entirely by one person: The head painter designed the composition of the scene and his apprentices drew the contours (which is called tahrir) with black or colored ink and then painted the miniature without creating an illusion of third dimension. The head painter, and much more often the scribe of the text were named and depicted in some of the manuscripts. The understanding of perspective is different from that of European Renaissance Painting tradition and the scene depicted may include different time periods and spaces. The miniatures followed closely the context of the book, resembling illustrations of the picture books today. The colors were obtained by ground powder pigments mixed with egg-white and later with diluted gum arabic. The colors were brilliant. Contrasting colors were used side by side with warm colors that reminds us of the 20th century avant-garde painters' approach in color selection. The color nuances of the same shade were applied in a masterly fashion. The most used colors were bright red, scarlet, green and different shades of blue.
The world-view underlying the Ottoman miniature painting was also different from that of European Renaissance Painting tradition. The painters did not mainly aim to depict the human beings and other living or non-living beings realistically, although increasing realism is found from the later 16th century onwards. Like Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, they despised mimesis
Mimesis
Mimesis , from μιμεῖσθαι , "to imitate," from μῖμος , "imitator, actor") is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the...
because according to the world view of sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
the appearance of worldly beings was not permanent and worth devoting effort to. The Ottoman artists wanted to hint at an infinite and transcendent reality (that is Allah, according to the Sufism's pantheistic point of view) with their paintings so they stylized and abstracted everything depicted.
History and development
Mehmed II
Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...
a court workshop called Nakkashane-i Rum, that also functioned as an academy, was founded in Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
to create illuminated picture manuscripts for the Sultan and the courtiers.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
workshop of Persian miniaturists was closed and its famous instructor Behzad (or Bihzad) went to Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
. After the Ottoman emperor Yavuz Sultan Selim
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
briefly conquered Tabriz in 1514, taking many manuscripts back to Istanbul, the "Nakkashane-i Irani" (The Persian Academy of Painting) was founded in Topkapi Palace for imported Persian artists. The artists of these two painting academies formed two different schools of painting: The artists in Nakkashane-i Rum were specialized in documentary books, like the Shehinshahname, showing the public, and to some extent the private, lives of rulers, their portraits and historical events; Shemaili Ali Osman-portraits of rulers; Surname-pictures depicting weddings and especially circumcision festivities; Shecaatname-wars commanded by pashas. The artists in Nakkashanei-i Irani" specialized in traditional Persian poetic works like the Shahnameh
Shahnameh
The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...
, the Khamsa of Nizami, containing Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman and Layla – in Arabic مجنون ليلى or قيس وليلى , in , Leyli və Məcnun in Azeri, Leyla ile Mecnun in Turkish, in Urdu and Hindi – is a classical Arab story, popularized by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's...
and the Iskendername or Romance of Alexander, Humayunname, animal fables and anthologies. There were also scientific books on botany and animals, alchemy, cosmography and medicine; technical books; love letters; books about astrology and dream reading.
The reigns of Suleyman the Magnificent and especially Selim II
Selim II
Selim II Sarkhosh Hashoink , also known as "Selim the Sot " or "Selim the Drunkard"; and as "Sarı Selim" or "Selim the Blond", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574.-Early years:He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the...
(1566-1574) in the second half of 16th century were the golden age of the Ottoman miniature with its own characteristics and authentic qualities. Nakkas Osman
Nakkas Osman
Nakkaş Osman was the chief miniaturist for the Ottoman Empire during the later half of the sixteenth century. The dates of his birth and death are poorly known, but most of his works are dated to the last quarter of the sixteenth century...
was the most important miniature painter of the period, while Nigari developed portrait painting.
Matrakci Nasuh
Matrakçi Nasuh
Nasuh bin Karagöz bin Abdullah el-Bosnavî , commonly known as Matrakçı Nasuh for his competence in the game called Matrak was a 16th century Ottoman mathematician, teacher, historian, geographer, cartographer, swordmaster, and miniaturist of...
was a famous miniature painter during the reigns of Yavuz Sultan Selim and Suleyman the Magnificent. He created a new painting genre called topographic painting. He painted cities, ports and castles without any human figures and combined scenes observed from different viewpoints in one picture.
During the reign of Selim II (1566-1574) and Murat III's (1574-1595), the classical Ottoman miniature style was created. The renowned miniature painters of the period were Nakkas Osman, Ali Celebi, Molla Kasim, Hasan Pasa and Lutfi Abdullah.
By the end of the 16th century and in the beginning of 17th century, especially in the reign of Ahmed I
Ahmed I
Ahmed I or Ahmed Bakhti was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 until his death in 1617.-Biography:...
, single page miniatures intended to be collected in albums or murakkas
Muraqqa
A Muraqqa is an album in book form containing Islamic miniature paintings and specimens of Islamic calligraphy, normally from several different sources, and perhaps other matter...
were popular. They had existed at the time of Murat III, who ordered an album of them from the painter Velijan. In 17th century, miniature painting was also popular among the citizens of Istanbul. Artists under the name of "Bazaar Painters" who worked with other artisans in the bazaars of Istanbul (Carsi Ressamlari - a definition made by Metin And, in "17. Yüzyıl Türk çarşı ressamları." Tarih ve Toplum, no. 16 (April 1985): 40-44) at the demand of citizens.
A new cultural genre known in Ottoman history as the "Tulip Period" occurred during the reign of Ahmed III
Ahmed III
Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV . His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah Râbi'a Gül-Nûş Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajioglupazari, in Dobruja...
. Some art historians attribute the birth of the unique style called "Ottoman Baroque" to this period. The characteristics of the period carried the influences of French baroque. In this period, a grand festival for the circumcision rituals for the sons of Ahmed III was organized. Artisans, theatre groups, clowns, musicians, trapeze dancers and citizens joined in the festivities. A book called Surname-i Vehbi tells about this festival. This book was depicted by Levni
Abdulcelil Levni
Abdulcelil Levni or Abdulcelil Çelebi was an Ottoman court painter and miniaturist.-Biography:He was born in Edirne, some time in the late 17th century. He became the most prominent painter in the Ottoman Empire, and was appointed court painter under Sultans Mustafa II and Ahmed III. He was a...
or Abdülcelil Levni Çelebi (the name Levni is related to the Arabic word levn (color) and was given to the artist because of the colorful nature of his paintings) and his apprentices. His style of painting was influenced by Western painting and very different from the earlier miniature paintings.
After Levni, Westernization of Ottoman culture continued and, with the introduction of printing press and photography, no more illuminated picture manuscripts were produced. From then on, wall paintings or oil paintings on toils were popular. So the miniature painting lost its function.
After a period of crisis in the beginning of the twentieth century, miniature painting was accepted as a "decorative art" by the intellectuals of the newly founded Turkish Republic, and in 1936, a division called "Turkish Decorative Arts" was established in the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, which included miniature painting together with the other Ottoman Book Arts. Suheyl Unver educated many artists following the tradition of Ottoman Book Arts.
Contemporary miniature artists include Ömer Faruk Atabek, Sahin Inaloz, Cahide Keskiner, Gülbün Mesara, Nur Nevin Akyazici, Ahmet Yakupoğlu, Nusret Çolpan
Nusret Çolpan
Nusret Çolpan was a Turkish painter, architect and miniaturist, renowned for his paintings in Ottoman miniature style depicting cities around the world, particularly Istanbul. He painted over 300 miniatures in his 30 year career.-Lost Years in Bandirma:Çolpan's talent for painting was recognized...
, Orhan Dagli and many others from the new generation. Contemporary artists do not consider miniature painting as merely a "decorative art" but as a fine art form. Different from the traditional masters of the past, they work individually and sign their works. Also, their works are not illustrating books anymore but being exhibited in fine art galleries.
Further reading
Osmanlı Resim Sanatı (Ottoman Painting) Serpil Bagci, Filiz Cagman, Gunsel Renda, Zeren TanindiAşk Estetiği (The Aesthetics of Divine Love) Beşir Ayvazoğlu
Turkish Miniature Painting F. Çağman
Turkish Miniatures from the 13th to the 18th century R. Ettinghausen
Ottoman miniatures and its downfall form the theme of the novel My Name is Red
My Name is Red
My Name Is Red is a 1998 Turkish novel by Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk. The English translation won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2003,. The French version won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and the Italian version the Premio Grinzane Cavour in 2002...
by Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
.
See also
- Culture of the Ottoman EmpireCulture of the Ottoman EmpireThe culture of the Ottoman Empire evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed, adapted and modified the cultures of conquered lands and their peoples...
- Persian MiniaturePersian miniatureA Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts...
External links
- Miniature Gallery from Levni and other famous artists
- About Surname-i Vehbi