The Art of Marbling (EBRU)
Coming over the Silk Road to Anatolia from the Turks ancient homeland, the art set out from Bukhara in Turkestan, picked up its name (ebru) in Iran, and settled in Anatolia.
Etymologically originating from the word “ebr” in Iran, which means “cloud”, marbling can be defined as water face painting.
This decorative art then spread to China, India and Persia and Anatolia. Seljuk and Ottoman calligraphers and artists used marbling to decorate books, imperial decrees, official correspondence and documents. New forms and techniques were perfected in the process and Turkey remained the center of marbling for many centuries. Up until the 1920′s, marblers had workshops in the Beyazit district of Istanbul, creating for both the local and European market, where it is known as Turkish marble paper.
Art historians indicate that paper marling art was performed with the same techniques in 8th century in China, 12th in Japan and mid-16th in India. The oldest paper ever documented nowadays is within a work of art dating back to circa 1519 called Mecmûatü’l-Acâib which is at the Istanbul University Library. Another one is in the literary work of Arifi called Guy-i Çevgan (1539) at the Topkapı Palace Museum.
Like all the classical Ottoman arts, the art of marbling was one which was not taught by writing or explanation, but rather was a branch of art in which students were trained by means of the “master/apprentice” system. The ability to turn out marbling which was truly beautiful was something of which only artists who had devoted years -and even their lives- to this art could be worthy.
The first person whose name was given to his style of marbling in this art was Mehmed Efendi, a preacher at Ayasofya Mosque who lived around 1770 and 1773. By means of a few nested motifs done in the form of flowers or stars, a new style was born in the art of marbling. This style, called Hatip Ebrusu (“Preacher’s Marbling”) was the next advance after Sebek Mehmed Efendi in the search for flowers in the art of marbling, and we may regard this as being the father of “Floral Marbling”.
Performance of the Art
The master of marbling art made his brushes from rose stem and horse tail and generally created his compositions using the traditional patterns. However, if the master creates a unique pattern of his own, such pattern is named after him after general acceptance of his work. Examples of such denominations are barut marbling (Hikmet Barutcugil) and Necmeddin ebrusu (Necmettin Okyay)
Marbling begins first with the dissolving in water of tragacanth, a white material derived from a plant which grows in Anatolia. A type of gum, tragacanth gives the water a degree of viscosity. A vessel with the approximate dimensions of the paper to be marbled is filled with this liquid to depth of about six centimeters. At the same time, earth-based dyes in various colors are thoroughly crushed with a specially-shaped pestle on a marble slab and are reduced to powder. Each of these dyes is placed in a separate glass jar and mixed with a small amount of water. Into each is added five ten drops of ox bile (previously boiled to prevent it from spoiling). When added to the water of the dyes, this material spreads on the surface (not unlike olive oil) and it ensures that the dyes superimposed on one another do not become mixed. These liquefied dyes are removed from their jars one after another by means of special coarse horsehair brushes and sprinkled onto the tragacanth solution. Each of the dyes added spread one onto the other producing attractive figures. With the marbling vessel, a sheet of an appropriate absorbent paper with exactly the same dimensions as the vessel is placed, and an image of the all the dyes on the surface of the water is absorbed by the paper. Next the paper is removed and left to dry, while the vessel is ready for another marbling. In this way, hundreds of marbling’s may be made, but with time the dyes in the vessel slowly become grainy, at this point, dyes (mostly blue ones) prepared with turbot bile rather than ox bile are added in the exact center of the vessel until they have spread over the entire surface. From this one obtains the final output of the vessel: “Sand Marbling” or “Fishbone Marbling”.
Some of the paper marbling styles are; battal (large), somaki (porphyry), neftli battal (oversized), serpmeli (sprinled) battal, gel git (tide), taraklı (splayed), kumlu (sandy), hatib.
Oversized Marbling; If no intervention is made in the dyes sprinkled into the vessel on the other hard, an antique style of marbling known as “Oversized Marbling” is obtained. Nevertheless, this may be given form by means of a thin piece of wire (or a needle), producing such types of marbling known as “Tidal”, “Passion Flower”, and “Nightingale’s Nest”. If a special comb studded with nails is dragged through the sprinkled dyes, the result is “Serrated Marbling”.
To produce floral marbling, a light-colored ground is prepared as “Oversized Marbling”, after which the green dye which has been added is drawn and stretched by means of a needle -almost as if it were rubber- to provide the shapes of stems and leaves. The colors which will serve as the blossom on the upper end of the stem are added in drops and given shape. From here on, the beauty of the flower is dependent upon the artist’s skill.
EBRU MASTERS
SEBEK MEHMET EFENDI, No information other than the given above is available for Sebek Mehmet Efendi. His death must be before the publication of “Tertib-i Risale-i Ebri”, 1608 since it is said “rahimehullah” (May God bless his soul) for him in this booklet. It is understood from the words “Nusha-i Sebek” (booklet of Sebek) in the “Tertib-i Risale-i Ebri” that he has an unknown booklet.
HATIP MEHMET EFENDI, He is from Istanbul. He is known as “hatip” (preacher) because he was the preacher of Ayasofya Mosque. The date of his birth is unknown. Because he is mentioned as “pir-i mubarek” (holly old master) in the “Tuhfe-i Hattatin”, he must have been quite old when he died in April 1773. He has learnt “tuluth-nesh” calligraphy from Zuhdi Ismail Aga. Because he is the inventor of ebru figures created by dropping concentric dyes and reshaping them with a needle, ebru papers containing such figures are called “hatip ebrusu”. His ebru papers which were identified by their distinctive colours and hatip patterns have been extremely popular and avidly collected during his lifetime. He died in the fire which destroyed his home in Hocapasa district of Istanbul.
SEYH SADIK EFENDI, There is not much information about the life of Sheikh Sadik Efendi who was born in the city of Vabakne in Bukhara. He was the sheikh of the Ozbekler Tekkesi (Uzbekh Dervish Convent) in Sultantepesi, Uskudar. We know that he learnt the art of ebru when he was in Bukhara and he taught it to his two sons Edhem and Salih. It is read from his tombstone in the Dergah that he died on the 11th of July 1846.
HEZARFEN EDHEM EFENDI, Ibrahim Edhem Efendi who was the Sheikh of Uskudar Ozbekler Tekkesi is considered as the most distinguished marbling master of the last century. He was the grandfather of Turkey’s ex-ambassador to Washington, Munir Ertegun (1882-1944). He was born in the Ozbekler Tekkesi in 1829. He has been educated by his father Sadik Efendi, his uncle and the scholars from Bukhara visiting the Tekke. He was proficient in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Cagatai. He learnt ta’lik script from Carsambalı Arif Bey at a quite an old age. He was a carpenter, metal caster, weaver, printer, architect, scientist and a mathematician. He was appointed as the first principal to Sultanahmet School of Crafts in 1869 and it was here that the first lead pipes were cast in Turkey. Producing ebru papers was one of his many talents which made him famous as Hezarfen (owner of a thousand crafts). Besides Aziz Efendi and Sami Efendi, the most distinguished of his students is Necmeddin Okyay.He died on the 8th of January 1904 and buried in the cemetery of the Tekke.
NECMEDDIN OKYAY, He was born on the 29th of January 1885 in Uskudar. He was the master of marbling of the twentieth century. Necmeddin Okyay was educated in theology but he is best known as a calligrapher and marbler. Besides calligraphy and marbling, he was a master of ink-making, traditional bookbinding, rose-growing, archery etc. He learnt ebru from Hezarfen Edhem Efendi. He taught calligraphy at Medresetu’l Hattatin (School of Calligraphy) and traditional bookbinding and ebru at the Academy of Fine Arts. He taught ebru to his sons Sami (1910-12 June 1933) and Sacid (1915-19 April 1999) Okyay and to his nephew Mustafa Duzgunman (1920-12 September 1990) .Before Necmeddin Okyay, we had very primitive flower ebrus. He started a new style in our ebru history by creating flower designs which are admired by the marblers of the world. He is also the inventor of calligraphy with marbling. At the beginning he used to prepare stencils of calligraphies, glue them on the paper to be marbled using gum Arabic which is a very weak adeshive and remove the stencil after the paper has been marbled. Later he noticed that the parts of the paper which has gum Arabic resist the dyes and he started to write with gum Arabic instead of ink. The most famous of calligraphies produced by Necmeddin Okyay as described is the “Lafza-i Celal” ( name of God ).
SAMI OKYAY, He was the second son of Necmeddin Okyay. He was born in Uskudar in 1910. He learnt ebru from his father and made unbelievably beautiful and technically difficult ebrus during his very short life. Besides ebru, he was a very talented illumination, engraving, lacquer and traditional bookbinding artist.
SACID OKYAY, He was the third and youngest son of Necmeddin Okyay. He was born in Uskudar in 1915. He taught traditional bookbinding and ebru at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1936 to 1973 until he retired.He died on the 19th of April 1999 and buried at the Karacaahmet Cemetery, next to his father.
