OTTOMAN ART FORMS

OTTOMAN ARCHITECTURE

Ottoman architecture is the architecture of the Ottoman Empire which emerged in Bursa and Edirne in 15th and 16th centuries.

They mastered the technique of building huge indoor spaces that had seemingly weightless massive domes. They were able to achieve the perfect harmony between inner and outer spaces, as well as articulated light and shadow.

CALLIGRAPHY

Calligraphy is the art of writing script in such a way as to express the beauty of what is being written in the formation of the letters themselves.

Calligraphy claims ancient roots in the first recorded forms of expression: the cave paintings of our ancestors some 25,000-30,000 years ago. Eventually this form of pictorial communication became stylized around 3500 B.C. with the development of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

EBRU, MARBLING

Marbling is the art of creating colorful patterns by sprinkling and brushing color pigments on a pan of oily water and then transforming this pattern to paper.

It is believed to be invented in the thirteenth century Turkistan. 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.

GRAVURES

Gravure is a printing method in which an image is created on a metal plate which is then covered with ink and then the image is pressed another surface to create the desired image.

CERAMICS

Ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery.

The Ottoman Empire inherited the design and the craftsman ship of ceramics from Iranian Seljuk art. In the 12th Century Seljukid Turks used tiles to decorate their buildings, the designs were geometric in character and the main colors were blue and turquoise.

MINIATURES

Ottoman miniature art can be linked to the Persian miniature tradition, as well as strong Chinese artistic influences.

The miniature works of art were not created entirely by one person: The head painter designed the composition of the scene and his apprentices drew the contours with black or colored ink and then painted the miniature.

RUGS AND CARPETS

The knotted Ottoman carpets seem to have spread from Central Asia westwards through Persia and Anatolia with growing Turkish empires.

Floor rugs have been known since ancient times going back to Assyrians and Babylonians but those were not knotted rugs, but woven fabrics. The knotted carpet does not appear in Islamic countries until the emergence of the Iranian Seljuks in the 11th century.

COSTUMES

Ottoman clothing can be traced from as early as 100 BC to modern times.

While the Palace and its court displayed showy clothes, the common people were only concerned with covering themselves. Suleiman the Magnificent occasionally brought about legal regulations on clothes. The administrators and the wealthy wore a cotton or silk cloak buttoned down the front, with full sleeves, reaching to the ankles and worn with a sash.