36
Nuray Gümüştekin
master and competent on all those areas. The most well-known character of the age is
Leonardo da Vinci… (And, 2006, 225)
4. The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Proto-Renaissance of the fifteenth century has only become prevalent in the boundaries of
Italy, and in the meantime, the Post-Gothic art has developed in the North. Merely
observation has become a method of research and examination both in the South and North.
Those who have ordered and requested the artists to produce works of art were the trade
guilds in the Northern Europe and the patrons of art in Italy. Great and significant pieces of
art have emerged in South owing to “The Last Supper”, while in North, trivial handicrafts
have appealed to the bourgeoisie.
The first half of the sixteenth century is regarded as the maturity age of Renaissance,
and the values descried in fine arts during this period have lasted until the mid-nineteenth
century. Innovations accompanied with the sixteenth century have included much more larger
figures, soft and fluent gestures, the images with the element of light and the observation of
the reality. The most important feature of the 16th century was that it has been created
awareness of works of art and so that the artist has become important.
It obviously seems that the Ottomans has become a powerful emperorship by the 15th
century, and this strength is apparent in architecture as well. As a result of progressive social
and economic structures, much larger and greater sized mosques have been constructed. By
the sixteenth century, the most powerful and ruling crown of the period was the Ottoman
Empire. This strength has reached its apogee not only in the architecture, but also in every
branches of the applied and visual arts ranging from miniatures and calligraphy to ceramics
and the art of ornamentation. Therefore, it is called as “The Classical Era” in
the Ottoman art
of the sixteenth century.
Image 6. Leonardo da Vinci, Drawings of Water Lifting Devices 1480-82
Drawing, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan
Image 7. Garment study for a seated figüre, 1470-84,Brush
and grey distemper on
grey canvas, 266 x 233 mm. Musée du Louvre, Paris
Image 9. Jan van Eyck,
early Netherlandish
painter one of the most
significant
Northern Renaissance
artists of the 15th century. “The Betrothal Of The
Arnolfini” 1434 AD
Image 10. Albrecht Dürer (German painter), Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe
1500
Image 8. Da Vinci's Last Supper has become one of the most widely
appreciated masterpieces in the world.
37
West and The Ottoman Period Comparative Description
“When examining the mosques in the Ottoman architecture of the 16th century, it can
be seen that all of the universal and fundamental meanings has come together in the mosques
themselves: The northern courtyard represents a forceful and real life; the inner of the mosque
is a spiritual and unworldly space and raises a human-being up to the sacred under the
guardian dome, a sign of both the God and the Sultan; the cemetery in the south symbolizes
the garden of the dead.” (ERZEN, 1999, 63)
The art of miniature has become significant in the era of Suleiman the magnificent by
the sixteenth century. “The key to understand the aesthetical principles of the Ottoman culture
of the sixteenth century essentially lurks in that it had persistently put emphasis on lively,
experienced and performing aspects of the arts.” (ERZEN, 1999, 65)
It can be purely mentioned a tangible and substantial Ottoman art only at the turn of
the fifteenth century.
“When examined closely the compositional characteristics of the Ottoman miniatures
and architecture of the sixteenth century...the theatrical atmosphere draws attention
prominently… and this can be grounded on the artist’s world-view: his job is to do something
on a prearranged scene, to assimilate and relate with his design to a flawless order. The God
would be keeping an eye on him like the Sultan is.” (ERZEN, 1999, 58)
In miniatures, “the conception of imagery is not a three-dimensional illusion, yet two-
dimensional. The relational orientation of figures based on a radial compisition rotating
around a focal, defines their positions in events... Such designs in arrangements are not
different from the ones of spaces in the architecture of the sixteenth century.” (ERZEN, 1999,
59)
5. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Along with Manierism in reaction to Renaissance, new art foms including stil-life and interior
paintings have been emerged in the Western art of the seventeenth century. The artists have
begun to discover new values and features of the nature they had never seen before until that
time. Just like figurative painting, the landscape has been regarded as an independent art form.
The artists have interested in the current events and lives. The objects that had been
considered as symbols in the period when the world had been perceived religiously have been
appreciated through their own realities and have become the art themes. Branches of art have
been diverged seperately; the artists have specialized in specific fields.
Image 11. Matrakci Nasuh,
Nice, Suleymanname, Istanbul, 1543
Image 12. Nakkas Osman, The Ottoman army
besieging Vienna (1529).Huner-nama, Vol II. 1588.
Image 13. Selim II receiving the Safavid ambassador in the palace at Edirne in 1567.
Nehzetu'l-Ahbar
der Sefer-i Sigetvar, Nakkas Osman, 1568.