x0x "Palace of Gold and Light" Ottoman Exhibit Opens In March
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October 29, 1999 New York Times
Antiques: For Turks, Art to Mark 700th Year
By WENDY MOONAN
NEW YORK -- Turkey may be recovering from a crushing earthquake, but
nothing will stop that proud country from commemorating next year's 700th
anniversary of the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Turks are rediscovering
their pre-republic past with an enthusiasm that would have been
unthinkable 20 years ago.
In London they were among the top bidders at Sotheby's record-breaking
Islamic Week auctions, which just ended, and they are expected to appear
in New York on Monday for Christie's sale of Orientalist paintings and
works of art from the estate of Akram Ojjeh, a Syrian-born financier who
died in 1991. The Orientalist paintings go on view Friday.
Turks are already lending works for a number of American shows. "Letters
of Gold," an exhibition of calligraphy that was at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, is now at the Arthur M. Sackler Arts Museum at Harvard. It has 71
important works of hand-lettered Ottoman calligraphy lent by the Turkish
industrialist Sakip Sabanci, who has been collecting Korans, palace prayer
books and Ottoman calligraphy panels for years.
The artifacts, dating from 1512 to 1909, are as striking as works of art
as they were powerful as ferman (edicts) in the past.
People who miss this exhibition can look forward to "Palace of Gold and
Light," which is opening at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington in
March. The artworks in the show will come from the Topkapi Palace Museum
in Istanbul. The Corcoran will display some of the earliest Ottoman
objects ever to leave Turkey.
"What is different is our focus on Mehmed II the Conqueror and the 15th
century," said Dr. Tulay Artan, a university history professor who is the
curator of the show. "We will demonstrate the magnitude of the cultural
exchanges between the Ottomans and the Far East and Western Europe. We
have Italian velvets, rock crystal from Burgundy and Chinese porcelains."
The Ottoman artifacts will include early Turkish carpets, court jewelry,
gilded metalwork, manuscripts and the emerald-encrusted 18th-century
Topkapi dagger that was the object of so much attention in Jules Dassin's
1964 film "Topkapi."
There will also be a sultan's collapsible ebony-and-ivory campaign throne,
his sable-lined, brocaded silk caftan, some jewel-encrusted turban
ornaments and gilded-copper horse armor. In London, sales of Islamic art
have broken records in the last three weeks.
"There was very strong bidding throughout," said Nicholas Shaw, Sotheby's
Islamic specialist there. "There was success in books, coins, paintings,
ceramics and carpets."
On Oct. 13, Sotheby's sold a painting called "Sunset, Constantinople" by
an Italian artist, Hermann David Salomon Corrodi, for $71,750, one of the
top 10 lots in its Travel Sale and thought to be a world record for
Corrodi. The next day the auction house sold a rare Iznik blue-and-white
stemmed dish, known as a tazza, circa 1575, for $139,000, again one of the
top 10 lots in the sale of Arts of the Islamic World.
In that sale, one 15th-century Iznik tile set a world record for a tile,
at $83,200. A 17th-century Iznik dish with a lion motif sold for $133,000.
"This was a genuinely unique depiction of a lion," Shaw said. "It may have
been borrowed from a miniature or metalwork."
Sotheby's Islamic sales, which began in 1976, attract Turkish antiques
dealers, museums and private collectors. Erdogan Demiroren, a Turkish
industrialist, and his wife, Tulin, have been serious collectors for
years.
In 1983, the Demirorens' Istanbul house burned to the ground, and they
lost everything. The calamity was compounded because their house was a
yali, a 19th-century wooden villa built in the Turkish style right by the
Bosporus.
Simple on the outside and elaborate within, yalis were the summer villas
of the ruling elite. To escape the heat in June, the sultan and his court
retreated to the Bosporus north of the city. When the sultan moved to a
summer palace, the pashas (top military officers) occupied their yalis.
In time some of the yalis became consulates for German, Italian, British,
French and other powers eager to maintain close relations with the
government. (The most notable, still in use, is Egypt's Art Nouveau
confection.)
The Demiroren yali may have been doomed from the start. It was built in
the late 19th century by a French marquis. As the story goes, the marquis
had done a favor for the sultan, and in gratitude the sultan gave him a
beautiful young woman.
The marquis fell in love with the woman, married her and decided to build
a yali and fill it with beautiful things. Soon, however, he became so
jealous of his wife's admirers that he put the front door in the side
yard, out of sight of his neighbor, a lawyer. (Yalis face the water,
because their owners travel by boat.)
The marquis took a Turkish name, Necip, and his famous yali was called the
Marquis Necip Bey Yalisi. Unfortunately, he could not retain his wife's
affections. As soon as he died, she went off with the lawyer. Until the
fire, the yali had been in decent shape.
The Demirorens rebuilt their house and slowly replaced its contents.
Today, the walls are again covered with Orientalist paintings, some of
them by fine, little-known Italian painters, and rare Ottoman textiles.
Tables are adorned with Iznik dishes, Ottoman horsehair fly swatters with
ivory handles and large pieces of Tombak, a Turkish copper that is gilded.
Their collection, which includes antique Sussani embroideries and
16th-century silk velvets from Bursa, 19th-century silver ewers and
18th-century brass braziers, is so important that they are the only
private collectors who are being approached to lend pieces for the Topkapi
show, Mrs. Artan said.
If the auction houses record ever more successful sales, perhaps other
Turkish collectors will join the list.