Art · Corner

Miniature — a sovereignty upon paper.

From Behzâd to Levnî, the great miniaturists of the Ottoman tradition. The lustre of the sûrnâme, the battles of the hünernâme, the padishah portraits of the şemâilnâme — the memory of a sovereignty upon paper.

11 miniaturists · five centuries

Ottoman miniature did not arise alone. First in Herat, in the atelier of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, Behzâd built a pictorial language in which figure and architecture carried equal weight; then in Tabriz, Shah Ismāʿīl turned that language into the Safavid idiom. When Selim I, returning from Chaldiran in 1514, brought the royal nakkaşhāne to Istanbul, the bridge of this lineage was set.

The nakkaşhāne-i hassa was a state atelier bound to the padishah. Here the miniaturist, the illuminator, the rule-setter and the paper-cutter worked side by side; a mushaf, a şehnāme, a surnāme would pass from hand to hand for years. In the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, Matrakçı Nasûh established the figureless city view, and Nigârî the single-figure portrait, each as an independent branch of the art.

Under Murad III the hand of Nakkaş Osman fixed the classical canon: the Şehnāme-i Selīm Hān, the Hünernāme, the Şemāʼilnāme and the Surnāme-i Hümāyūn are all works of his atelier. The standard iconography of the padishah portrait — from the headdress, to the angle of the throne, to the handkerchief between the fingers — came out of this room; every later court painter would repeat and transform that canon.

In the Tulip Era, painting the circumcision festival of Ahmed III’s sons in the Surnāme-i Vehbî, Levnî gathered the last lustre of miniature painting; Abdullah Buhârî pressed the single-figure album into its closest dialogue with the West. At the court of Selim III, Konstantin Kapıdağlı carried the volume of oil painting into the padishah portrait — the last link of the tradition, and the first knot of modern Turkish painting.

— Plate 01 —

Yusuf and Zulaykha · Bustan of Saʼdi · folio 52b

1488 (893 H) · Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

Dar al-Kutub · Cairo · Adab farisi 22

Kemâleddîn Behzâd
~1455 – ~1535 Herat school · Timurid-Safavid court · Literary miniature · figure
The upstream school at the root of Ottoman miniature. He worked first in the Herat atelier of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, then in the Tabriz atelier of Shah Ismaʼil. He built a pictorial language in which composition carries equal weight with architecture — a language carried later into the Istanbul court atelier through Şah Kulu and Velîcan.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 02 —

The city of Soltaniyeh · Beyān-ı Menāzil

~1537 · Ink and watercolour on paper

Istanbul University Library · TY 5964

Matrakçı Nasûh
~1480 – 1564 Age of Süleyman the Magnificent · Topographic city view
The inventor of the figureless Ottoman city view. A soldier, mathematician and painter of Bosnian origin, he drew the staging-posts on Süleyman’s campaigns from a bird’s-eye perspective. His city miniatures in the Beyān-ı Menāzil and the Süleymannāme laid down the first grammar of Ottoman topographic painting.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 03 —

Portrait of Hayreddin Barbarossa

~1540 · Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Istanbul

Nigârî (Hayder Reis)
~1492 – ~1572 Age of Süleyman the Magnificent · Portrait miniature
The first great Ottoman master of portrait miniature. A sailor by profession, Hayder Reis painted at court under the pen-name Nigârî. In his portraits of Hayreddin Barbarossa and Selim II he peeled the figure away from architecture and turned the page into pure character.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 04 —

Portrait of Selim II · Şemāʼilnāme

1579 · Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · H. 1563

Nakkaş Osman
~1530 – ~1592 Reign of Murad III · Historical miniature · şemâilnâme
The summit of classical Ottoman miniature. Chief painter of Murad III, principal illustrator of the Şehnāme-i Selīm Hān, the Hünernāme, the Şemāʼilnāme and the Surnāme-i Hümāyūn. His atelier set down the canonical iconography for the official portraits of the padishahs.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 05 —

Hunting figure · Eğri Fetihnāmesi · detail

1598 · Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum Library · H. 1609

Nakkaş Hasan Paşa
? – 1623 Reign of Mehmed III · Historical miniature · fetihnāme
The successor to Nakkaş Osman, and the only miniaturist to rise from chief painter to vizier. The Eğri Fetihnāmesi, recording Mehmed III’s Hungarian campaign, is from his hand — and through him the classical style passed into the seventeenth century.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 06 —
۞ work image unavailable

No freely accessible work image found

~1600 · Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Istanbul

Velîcan
? – 1622 Reigns of Murad III and Ahmed I · Safavid-rooted court miniature
A Safavid-rooted master who came from Tabriz into the Istanbul court atelier — the last Ottoman link in the line that began with Şah Kulu. His illuminations for the Pādişāhnāme and the Tercüme-i Şakāik form the bridge that fastens the Herat-Tabriz idiom to Ottoman taste.
— Plate 07 —

Surnāme-i Vehbî · folio 172a

1720 · Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum Library · A. 3593

Levnî (Abdülcelîl Çelebi)
? – 1732 The Tulip Era · Surnāme · single-figure album
The last great master of Ottoman miniature. Chief painter under Ahmed III, author of the Surnāme-i Vehbî. In his single-figure studies he opened the door to Western painting whilst remaining true to the two dimensions of the page.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 08 —

Lady at the bath · album leaf

1742 · Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Istanbul

Abdullah Buhârî
? – ~1750 After the Tulip Era · Single-figure album · muraqqaʼ
A contemporary of Levnî and the representative of the single-figure album tradition. Court women, dervish figures, flower studies — under his hand the last original vein of Ottoman miniature met Western painting at its most open.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 09 —

Portrait of Selim III

~1803 · Watercolour on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Istanbul

Konstantin Kapıdağlı
? – ~1806 Reign of Selim III · transition · Padishah portrait · Western technique
The figure of the passage from traditional miniature into Western painting. He worked at the court of Selim III, drawing the padishah portraits with the volume of oil painting and recasting the same series as a miniature album. The last link in the classical chain, and the first knot of modern Turkish painting.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 10 —
۞ work image unavailable

No freely accessible work image found

~1815 · Watercolour on ivory and paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Istanbul

Refâil
~1768 – ~1830 Reign of Mahmud II · Padishah portrait · miniature-portrait
A court miniature-portraitist in the reign of Mahmud II, carrying Kapıdağlı’s line into the years before the Tanzimat. His sultan portraits and depictions of state officials form the final traditional link in the chain of Ottoman portraiture.
— Plate 11 —

Portrait of Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk

~1930 · Oil on canvas

Türkiye İş Bankası Painting and Sculpture Collection

Mihrî Müşfik Hanım
1885 – 1954 Late Ottoman to Republic · Portrait · late miniature-painting
The late-period woman representative of the Ottoman court miniature tradition; director of the İnâs Sanâyi-i Nefîse Mektebi (the women’s academy of fine arts). The first woman painter to make a portrait of Atatürk from life — the last link to carry the tradition over the threshold of the Republic.
— Wikimedia Commons

— Brush —

Yā Hū. Miniature is where the eye meets the hand, and memory meets patience, upon a single sheet.

Yusuf and Zulaykha · Bustan of Saʼdi · folio 52b

The city of Soltaniyeh · Beyān-ı Menāzil

Portrait of Hayreddin Barbarossa

Portrait of Selim II · Şemāʼilnāme

Hunting figure · Eğri Fetihnāmesi · detail

No freely accessible work image found

Surnāme-i Vehbî · folio 172a

Lady at the bath · album leaf

Portrait of Selim III

No freely accessible work image found

Portrait of Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk