TURKISH MINIATURE PAINTING
Miniature (nakkis or tasvir) was a part of the Turkish-Islamic Book Arts together with illumination (tezhip), calligraphy (hat), marbling paper (ebru) and bookbinding.
The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been delineated with that pigment.
The miniatures followed closely the context of the book, resembling illustrations of the picture books today.
Characteristic features of the Turkish miniatures, whose themes cover all aspects of everyday life, are the snapshot style and careful attention to detail – important documents not only for historians as they allow us a accurate insight into bygone days. It is thanks to the miniatures that we know more about the fashions of the time and what the towns looked like in the Ottoman Empire.
TURKISH - ISLAMIC MINIATURE TECHNIQUE
The words tasvir or nakis were used to define this art in Ottoman language. The studios they worked in was called Nakkashane.
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 painters did not aim to depict the human beings and other living or non-living beings realistically. They despised mimesis like Platoon because according to the world view of Sufism the worldly beings were not permanent and worth adoring. 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 all the things depicted.
The artist set the horizon as high as possible and chose a bird eye view. The most important person in the picture can be recognised by relatively oversized representation of this figure.
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 depicted and his apprentices or pupil 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, the author and writer of the story were mentioned and depicted in some of the manuscripts.
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 masterly applied. The most used colors were bright red, scarlet, green and different shades of blue.
The miniatures were divided as
1- Illustration of book, compositions (depiction of certain subjects and events)
2- Portraits.
The subject of miniatures were as follows:
Shahname and Shehinshahname: The public and private lives of rulers and historical events;
Shemaili Ali Osman: Portraits of rulers;
Surname: Pictures depicting weddings and especially circumcision festivities; religious subject (Siyer-I Nebi)
Shecaatname: Scenes from wars, attacks;
Humayunname: Epics and heroic, animal fable, folk stories such as Leyla and Mecnun.
A BRIEF HISTORY
“Turks have scattered all of their written cultural products in the dusty roads of steppes and deserts while migrating to the west.” Von le Coq
The history of Turkish-Islamic painting have been four major cultural periods in the history of Turkish art. Each of these periods has provided a distinctly different cultural setting for the development of these arts.
The first period is that of the pre-Islamic Central Asian and Ural-Altaic Turkic cultures from which the Turkish nation derives its origin. The people of those cultures were Manichean and Buddhist and practised animism and shamanism. Even before their conversion to Islam they possessed a fairly high level of civilization.
The Turkish tribe called Uygur was esteemed for its more advanced civilization. 9th century, Uygur Turks in the art of painting, was accomplished by the painters and their school in the town of Kizilkent. Strong evidence of survival of this period’s styles belongs to “Black Pen”, Siyah Kalem, otherwise known as Mohammed Baksi Uygur. Whose rendering of the supernatural and surrealistic world through the medium of an earthly realism, especially in some details of human and animal anatomy, is unique.
Uygur’s sense of light in pictures and their search for the influence and impression of shadow and light, served largely for the formation of Seljuk miniature school and canalized it.
The second period in Turkish painting, spans the civilization of the Seljuk Turks who, from the 11th to the 13th century, settled on the Central Anatolian plateau.
Seljuk Turks established the first school of miniature in Baghdad within their vast empire covering Turkestan, Iran, Mesopotamia and Anatolia in the 12th century. This school has continued until the end of the 14th century, but the most important works and examples are from the 13th century. The main characteristics of the Seljuk – Baghdad school were vigour, briskness, power of expression, caricature quality, over ornamentation, lack of scenery and accentuation of figures.
A 13th century manuscript, Varka and Gulsah, is the most important document we have on Seljuk Turk miniature painting.
“Drawing and painting, calligraphy and gilding, Achieve beauty and grace in Istanbul.” 17th century by NABI
The third period, is the Ottoman period. With the conquest of Istanbul on 29th May 1453 by Fatih Mehmet II, the Conqueror, the third period started in miniature painting. Fatih Mehmet II, an enlightened Sultan, showed appreciation of the Renaissance burgeoning in Italy. Several Italian artist were invited to Istanbul. His portrait painted by Gentile Bellini.
During the reign of Mehmet II a painting academy called Nakkashane-i Rum was founded in Topkapi Palace. The task of the artists in this academy was to create illuminated picture manuscripts for the Sultan and the courtiers.
Among the artists of this period two names are known: Sinan who painted Fatih’s portrait and Husamzade Sunullah.
Two manuscript from the reign of Bayazid, the on of Fatih, have been handed down to us. One is Husrev and Sirin by the poet Seyki. The other, is Suleymanname ( The book of Solomon) by Firdevsi. Two artists names are known Ahmet Sibilizade and Baba Mustafa.
Following the conquest of Tabriz by Selim 1 in 1514, Behzad and his pupils moved to the capital city of Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, to work in newly founded “Nakkashane-i Irani” (The Persian Academy of Painting) in Topkapi Palace. The artists of these two painting academies formed two different schools of painting: The artists in Nakkashane-i Rum were specialized in documentary books, the artists in Nakkashanei-i Irani” were specialized in fantastic and amazing subjects like Iskendername, Humayunname-epics, heroic deeds and animal fables; literary works and folk stories such as Layla and Majnun; anthologies; scientific books on botany and animals, alchemy, cosmography and medicine; technical books; love letters; books about astrology and dream reading.
The period of Suleyman the Magnificent ‘s reign, Turkish miniature painting reached its zenith. A document dated 1527-28, shows there were 29 master painters and 12 apprentices attached to the Court. Out of 29 artists 14 were Turks. The rest comprised several Persian, Albanian, Circasian and Moldavian artists. The most meritorious and versatile artist of this time was Nasuh el silahi el Matraki, better known as Matrakci Nasuh. He created a new painting genre called topographic painting. He painted cities, ports and castles without any human figures and combined sceneries observed from different viewpoints in one picture. He was also famed as a historian, war games and a champion of matrak.
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, Persian Veli Can and Nigari. Book names Hunername (The Book of Accomplishment) by Osman, Siyer-I Nebi (The Act of the Prophet) by Lutfi Abdullah and Acaib el Mahlukat (The Marvels of Creation) in 1575.
By the end of 16th century and in the beginning of 17th century, especially in the reign of Ahmet I and Osman II, album paintings or murakkas that consisted of only one page miniatures were popular. The best known painters were Nakkas Hasan, Ahmet Naksi and Kalender Pasha.
In 17th century, Murat IV, 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). Evliya mentioned 1000 painters and 100 workshops were in Istanbul.
Most of the artists of this period, preferred to paint individual miniatures complete in rather than illustrations for books. By this time, usually faintly tinted with gold and colors, were tending to become the vogue.
The output of the 17th century, can be assumed to have privided the formative influnce on 18th century artists, especially on Levni.
A new cultural genre known in Ottoman history as the “Tulip Period” occurred during the reign of Ahmet 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 Cahide Keskiner, Ahmet Yakupoglu and Nusret Colpan many others from the new generation. 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.
