Beyoglu Culture Road Workshop Programs

1. Calligraphy Workshop

Under the guidance of our instructor, we are waiting for your participation in our workshop where we will have general information about the history of Hüsn-i Hat art, the materials to be used in writing will be introduced and prepared and the letters will be explained practically, and then; accompanied by ink and reed pen, our students will make rik'a letters.

1. 1. About Calligraphy
1. History

Hat means line, writing, path. In Islamic culture, it is called the art of writing in a beautiful way (hüsn-i calligraphy), adhering to aesthetic measures. The art of calligraphy, which is generally described in the sources as "a spiritual hendese (geometry) created with corporeal instruments", has developed for centuries within the framework of an aesthetic understanding appropriate to this description and has reached the present day.

It is thought that the art of calligraphy emerged between the birth of Islam and the 6th-7th centuries. A few centuries after the Hijrah, it became the common value of Muslims and gained the character of an Islamic line.

The art of calligraphy, like many other arts, experienced its most brilliant period during the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks established a superior school in the art of calligraphy that is impossible to reach. The first representative of the Ottoman Empire was Sheikh Hamdullâh. Living in the 16th century, Sheikh Hamdullâh brought a beauty and maturity to the art of calligraphy that was unattainable until then. Many sultans in the Ottoman Empire were interested in the art of calligraphy. Istanbul became the center of calligraphy after it was conquered by the Turks. This fact, which is unquestionably accepted throughout the Islamic world, is best expressed in these words: ''The Qur῾an was revealed in Hijāz, read in Egypt, and written in Istanbul.'' 

The second important figure in the Ottoman period, 100 years after Shaykh Hamdullāh, was Hāfiz Osman. Especially the Qur'ans he wrote were very popular and were reproduced in print.

In the 19th century, the art of calligraphy was developed by Mustafa Râkım, who succeeded Hâfız Osman, and by many precious calligraphers with schools such as Sâmi Efendi, Kazasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi, Yesârizâde Mustafa İzzet Efendi.

Reed pen, soot ink, sharpener, makta, inkwell, inkwell, lika, and paper are among the main materials required for the art of hüsn-i calligraphy.

The pîr of calligraphers is Hazrat Ali (ra). The lineage of calligraphers reaches to him. After Hazrat Ali (ra) made Kufi the center of Islamic scripts, the Islamic script took the name of Kufi. Kufi script is also called "Umm al Hutût", which means "the mother of scripts".

After the Kufic script, the six types of writing that became famous among Islamic scripts as Aklâm-ı Sitte (Six Pens) and were considered as the second root after Kufic were recorded as Tevkî, Rikaa', Muhakkak, Reyhânî, Sülüs and Nesih. Some have counted Tâlik as the seventh and said that the original of measured writing is the seven pens and is called "Heft Kalem".

Descriptions of the Aklâm-ı Sitte (Six Items):

Thuluth: It means "one third". After Kūfī, it was considered as a beginning in the art of calligraphy and a basis and source in the teaching of calligraphy.

Nesih: It is taken from Kufi script and the letter shapes are rounder and more elegant than those seen in Kufi. It is subject to the thuluth. Since it was generally used in writing mushafs, those who wrote naskh were called "Hamele-i Qur'ân", which means "servant of the Qur'an". The thickness of the pen is one-third of that of the thuluth.

Absolute: The letters of this script are larger than those of the thuluth. It is a wider and longer type of the horizontal portions of the thuluth script. The thickness of the pen is as thick as that of a thuluth pen.

Reyhânî: It is subordinate to the muhaqqaq and is the small written form of the muhaqqaq. Pen thickness is as thick as nesih.

Tevkî: It is written in a slightly smaller size than thuluth. The thickness of the pen is close to silhouette.

Rikaa': The thickness of the pen can vary, there is no set limit. The letters are ligatures because they are written very quickly. The prayers on the last pages of the Qur'ans and the texts of Ijazah are usually written in this script.

Gubârî, Dîvânî, Rika', Siyâkât are examples of other types of writing, but according to the sources, nearly a thousand types of writing were recorded. This is like a short balance sheet of the importance attached to writing in Islam and the efforts made.

Some scripts were used in official correspondence, some in daily life, some were used for writing mushafs, some were used in the field of art.

This richness, which cannot be underestimated in the realm of art, is the beautiful and magnificent manifestations of minds and hands working under a Rabbinic inspiration and mercy, and hearts full of faith and pleasure.

References

-İstanbul Büyük Şehir Belediyesi, Sanat ve Meslek Eğitimi Kursları, 2013

-Ünver N., Kaya D., TC. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, Yazma Kitaplar, http://www.yazmalar.gov.tr/sayfa/yazma-kitaplar/9  Erişim Tarihi: 07.01.2022

-Çetin N. M. (1989), Aklam-ı Sitte, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/aklam-i-sitte Erişim Tarihi: 07.01.2022

-Derman M. U. (1997), Hat, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hat Erişim Tarihi: 07.01.2022

-Aşiyan Sanat ve Çerçeve, Hüsn-i Hat Nedir?, https://www.asiyansanat.com/blog/husni-hat-nedir-nasil-yapilir Erişim Tarihi: 07.01.2022

2. Paper Marbling Workshop

In our workshop, we will learn about the history and basic concepts of marbling art and we will learn how to make flower marbling and battal marbling in the traditional style from our instructor.

 

About Paper Marbling

• History of Paper Marbling

It is also accepted that marbling, which is rumored to have been started in India by Mîr Muhammed Tâhir in the middle of the 16th century, spread from there to Iran and then to Istanbul. At the end of the same century, it is known to have been brought to Europe by travelers. The marbling paper, which spread to England and America over time, has gained a distinction according to each country's understanding of art. The different materials used must also play a role in this.

The paints used in marbling are called "earth paints" because they are obtained from colored rocks and soils in nature and do not dissolve in water nor do they contain oil. The dyes are made ready for use by beating and crushing them thoroughly with a convex hand stone called "destesenk" by adding a little water on the stone. In the past, wooden boats covered with pitch were also used to prevent water from leaking out. Tragacanth, which is used to provide the water to be put into vessels (darkness and stickiness), is in the form of cream-colored non-uniform plates or strips. Dissolve it in water and strain it through a bag. In the Western world, sea shredded dough is used instead of tragachant. In order to ensure that the colors sprinkled on the tragachant water spread without mixing with each other, bovine dung, which contains bile acids for spreading on the surface, is added into each dye beforehand. Dye containing too much gall spreads too much. In the production of marbling, each color that is added to the marbling process requires more pay to make a place for itself among the previous colors. In marbling, since modern brushes cannot properly spread paint, a brush made of horsetail hair loosely wrapped around a thin and flat stick is used. A thin wire rod is used to shape the sprinkled paints and a thick wire rod is used for dripping paint.

Marbling paper is obtained as follows: When the paints, to which the gall has been added, began to be sprinkled evenly over the tragacanth water placed in the basin with the help of a brush, the colors spread over the surface of the water like clusters of clouds. Each new color pushes and squeezes the previous ones to make room for itself, according to the consistency of the gall it contains, and this style of marbling is called oversize marbling. In oversize marbling, it is not possible for the marbling artist to intervene in the vessel, except for sprinkling the paints; after a certain point, it has to obey the shapes that form. For this reason, marbling has been accepted as an observable phenomenon by scholars to explain the collective and individual will; the spreading of the paints has been likened to the individual will, and the previously unknown image that will appear on the surface of the vessel to the total and collective will. After the colors are sprinkled as if preparing oversize marbles, if the tip of the wire rod is touched to the water with tragacanth, and then the marbles are moved first from top to bottom or from right to left, and then in the opposite direction with sharp and uniform movements on the whole surface, the resulting marbles are called combing (tidal) marbles.

Again, if the colors are scattered as in oversize marbling and the tool called a comb is moved around on the vessel so that the strands enter the tragacanth water, comb marbling is obtained. If comb marbling is performed first and then turned into scalloped marbling, an even more attractive image is obtained. All these types of marbling are finally given the characteristic of sprinkle by sprinkling a dark color that does not spread. If the same process is done with turpentine oil, small gaps open up on the marbling ground, and the marbles prepared in this way are called turpentine. As the tragacanth water in the vessel is used and contaminated, the colors sprinkled sometimes begin to dot like sand, this is called sandy marbling. If the types of marbling listed so far are made by sprinkling light colors, light marbling is created and an attractive ground is prepared especially for calligraphy, and such papers are also steamed.

There is another type of marbling, known as orator's marbling because it was invented by Mehmed Efendi (d. 1773), the orator of the Hagia Sophia Mosque, a well-known marbler. In this, a drop of strong colors is placed on the light colored ground with the help of a wire stick, and if desired, a few more colors can be placed inside each other. A thin needle is moved several times from right to left and from top to bottom in these layered colored circles to create shapes such as a wheel of fortune, heart and star. Accordingly, flower shapes were also created. However, for the first time, M. Necmeddin Okyay (d. 1976) succeeded in making floral marbles (tulip, carnation, pansy, poppy, rose, chrysanthemum, hyacinth) that were closest to their natural shape, and his student Mustafa Düzgünman (d. 1990) added the daisy marbles to these. Floral marbles are known as "Necmeddin marbles" in our art history.

The marbling, prepared in the desired style in the vessel, is transferred in all its beauty to the paper, which is slowly tilted from the right or left side on the boat and left to stand for 15 seconds. The paper is lifted by grabbing the corners that are to the side of the person performing the marbling, the paper is pulled forward and laid on long slats and left to dry in the shade.

Embroidery performed on the vessel can only be transferred to a single sheet of paper. The same marbling performed once cannot be repeated, only similar ones can be made. Therefore, every marbling is a work of art that can never be copied.

Again, there are written marbles in Islamic calligraphy, the invention of Necmeddin Okyay.

In old manuscripts, when the writing area of the paper is painted in a different color and the surrounding area is painted in a different color, it is called "akkâse" and such papers are called "akkâseli paper". It is known that marbling paintings were made in Bîcâpûr, India in the XVIIth century with this technique, which was also applied to marbling. Although Necmeddin Okyay did not see them, he applied gum arabic to the center of the lightly marbled paper and laid this paper in the vessel in which he had sprinkled strong paints a second time to make two separate marbled papers, i.e. akkâseli marbling. This style was also applied to written marbling by Necmeddin Okyay.

In the past, marbling paper was used in the binding of manuscript books (marbled cover, çârkûşe cover) and as a side paper, as well as in the inner and outer moldings of stanzas and plates and in the parts called seats; the most beautiful examples of these are found in museums, libraries and collections. Furthermore, since Necmeddin Okyay, it is seen that attractive picture paintings have been prepared by pasting other styles of marbling on all four sides of floral marbling as inner and outer moldings.

This art has attracted the attention of the Western world since the XVIIth century, and many works on marbling have been written since the first publication in Rome in 1646 under the title "Turkish paper".

 

3. Miniature Workshop

In our workshop; We will learn about the history and basic details of the work of art, and how to make miniatures in the appropriate way from our training.

 

Miniature Word Meaning

Miniature is derived from the Latin word miniare, meaning "to paint with red". It is called miniare to make the subject headings clear with a minimum, that is, a sullen. Pictures that adorn the text over time are also called miniatures. Iranians and Turks called this style of painting "Embroidery painting" or "Hurde embroidery".

The word miniature was used as “minium” in Latin, “illumination” in English, “miniature” in French and “miniatur” in German and entered Turkish as “miniature”. In Ottoman Turkish, the miniature is called “embroidery” and the master is called “nakkaş”. In a broad sense, miniatures are explanatory pictures placed in manuscripts to illuminate the text (Anonymous, 1997a:1262).

History of Miniature Art

Throughout history, people have used painting to describe their feelings and thoughts, the world they live in and social events. The roots of today's painting art go back thousands of years.

Miniature, one of the foundations of traditional Turkish painting; It is an important art in the form of a document describing historical and daily events, revealing the traditions, culture and lifestyle of the time it tells. It is seen that the first examples of miniatures placed in manuscripts to illuminate the text were encountered in the pre-Islamic periods. Within the scope of the researches, it has been revealed that the history of the miniatures made by the Turks in Central Asia dates back to the 8th century. The cities of Turfan, Bukhara and Samarkand, which were the science centers of the Uighurs, are considered to be the most important centers of miniature art of the period. In these centers, the first examples of miniature art on wall frescoes were given and works that have survived to the present day have been brought to life.

The miniatures spread in Central Asia by the artists of the Mani religion in the 2nd century constitute the source of Turkish and Islamic miniature art. Greek, Roman and Byzantine manuscripts are also seen to be decorated with miniatures. When Christianity spread, miniatures, especially manuscripts, began to adorn the Bible. The development of miniature in the West coincides with the end of the 8th century.

Miniature is a style of painting that has been known and used in the East and West for a long time. The first known examples of Turkish-Islamic miniatures belong to the Seljuks who lived in Anatolia. However, although Eastern and Western miniatures are almost the same in terms of painting, there are differences in colors, shapes and subjects. The origins of Turkish book illustration date back to the Uyghur Turks.

XII of the first Islamic miniatures. and XIII. century is known. The first workshops were established in Baghdad. Uyghur miniatures pioneered Seljuk miniatures with their figure types and compositions. With the spread of the Seljuks from Iran to Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia, the first Turkish-Islamic miniature style was born. In these first depictions, the effects of Byzantine painting can be seen. In these depictions, the objects and scenes of daily life and the social life of the period were reflected.

In the miniature of the Ottoman period, three main subjects are seen. These consist of works in the field of history, literature and religion. The most illustrated manuscripts are those in the first group. Some of these works belong to the life of the sultans, some to the conquests and wars, and some to the lives of Turkish scholars and sages. To these, it is necessary to add the festivities that show the way of life of an era.

Important Figures in Miniature Art

The miniatures of Varka and Gülşen masnavi prepared by Abdülmü'min el-Hûyî in Konya in the 13th century and the miniatures of Harirî's Makâmât are the most important works of this period.

There is a miniature manuscript written on surgery in the Fatih period, the painter of which is unknown. The well-known muralist is Sinan Bey.

Matrakçı Nasuh is one of the most famous miniature artists during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. He is a great artist who, while painting his works on Ottoman history, created a brand new style that could be defined as landscapes without figures or topographic depictions from a bird's eye view.

Considered as the most productive and productive period of Turkish miniature art, II. Selim and III. During the period between Murat and Nigar, he made human depictions. Nigar made paintings of Yavuz Sultan Selim, Barbaros, Hayreddin Pasha, I. Francois and V. Charles.

Turgut Zaim is one of the painters who were influenced by miniature in the first years of the Republic.

The Development of Miniature Art in the Ottoman Empire

First stage or formation stage II. Starting with Mehmed II. It covers the period between 1451 and 1520, which ended with the reigns of Bayezid and Selim I. Second phase Transition phase Solomon I and II. Selim Period, the years 1520-1574, Third phase, Classical Phase: III. Murad and III. Mehmed Period 1574-1603, Fourth phase, late Classical and Pause Phase, 1603-1700, Fifth phase, III. Ahmed Period and 18th Century. The period between the years 1700-1750, which covers the first half: The sixth and final phase covers the years 1750-1900. It is considered as the end of Ottoman miniature after 1750” (And, 2002: 33).

Examples of Miniature Works

15th century Prepared in Amasya in 1416, which is considered to be the earliest example of Ottoman illustrated manuscripts, as the first examples of Turkish miniature art that has survived to the present day; It is a copy of Ahmedî's İskendernâme dated 1390. Miniature manuscripts produced in the same century: Tebrizî's Dilsûznâme (Mahir, 2005: 43-44; Çağman, 1976: 335-336), made in Edirne 1455-1456 and now in Oxford Bodlein Library, between 1460-1480. The work named Külliyat-ı Kâtibi, written by the Poet Clerk, which is now registered in the R.989 Topkapı Palace Museum Library, and Kitâbü'l-Cerrahiyyeti'l-İlhaniyye (Çağman, 1976: 335-336). Apart from these: 15th century. The three portraits of Mehmed the Conqueror produced in the last quarter are among the first works of Ottoman Miniature Art (Konak, 2013: 7).

References

Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı Yazma ve Nadir Eserler Daire Başkanlığı,     Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2021

Aslanapa, O., (1976). Türk Sanatı, İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları

Pugaçenkova, G., (1986). Orta Asya’nın Şaheserleri Resim ve Minyatür. Taşkent: Edebiyat ve Sanat Neşriyatı

Yetkin, S.K., (1984). İslam Ülkelerinde Sanat, İstanbul: Başaş Ofset

Kılıç Hüsna, Osmanlı Minyatürlerinde Padişah Portreleri, Lale Kültür, Sanat ve Medeniyet Dergisi | Ocak- Haziran 2020

Kızılşafak Elanur, Minyatürden İllüstrasyona Tarihsel ve Güncel Bir Bakış, 2014

Anonim, (1997a). Eczacıbaşı Sanat Ansiklopedisi, “Minyatür” maddesi, Yapı-Endüstri Merkezi Yayınları, Cilt:2, İstanbul, s-1262

Okt. Fatma Nilhan Özaltın, Doç. Dr. Filiz Nurhan Ölmez, Osmanlı Dönemi Minyatürlerinde El Sanatlarından İzler, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Hakemli Dergisi Art-E Mayıs 2011-07

 

4. Rosary Workshop

In our workshop; While the participants are informed about rosary making, Yılmaz Gündüz shows how to make rosary in accordance with tradition.