[TurkC-L] x0x ENCHANTING GLASS SOUS-VERRE PAINTINGS
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x0x ENCHANTING GLASS SOUS-VERRE PAINTINGS
EYUP COSKUN*
Technology is speeding ahead. Photographs have become digital
creations of computers, and those old faded sepia photographs a thing
of the past. In the world of painting, too, some techniques have been
forgotten in the whirl of change.
One of these is sous-verre or painting under glass, which was so
popular in Turkey in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At one time
such paintings were to be found not only in houses, but in places of
worship, coffeehouses, confectioners, butchers and barbers shops. When
girls got married their trousseaus were not complete without a
sous-verre painting.
Yet today they have become a rarity, and the artists who made them
have given up as their customers dwindled. Until 15 years ago it was
still possible to find sous-verre paintings on sale in Istanbul,
particularly in the Antiquarian Book Market. The artists worked in
powder paint, water paint, gouache, oils, and in latter times even in
acrylic.
They worked on the back of the glass, adding the colours in layers, so
that once one colour had been covered, retouching or alteration was
impossible. The outline, details, signature and date were executed
first, unlike an ordinary painting in which these come last. The
artist then filled in the surfaces between the lines, and finally the
background.
Sous-verre painting was done on sheets of 2-3 mm thick glass, which
had to be prepared so that the slippery glass would take the paint.
Numerous different techniques were employed for this purpose, such as
garlic in some European countries, and gum Arabic or other adhesives,
diluted and applied with a brush were common. When the picture was
completed it was backed with paper, cardboard, wood or paint to
protect it.
In Turkey painting under glass was mainly the preserve of untrained
folk artists, who neglected to back their pictures, with the result
that very few have survived. Different subjects were preferred for
homes and work places.
Pictures of Sahmeran, a creature half-human and half-serpent who was a
symbol of wisdom, were generally hung in houses, in the belief that
they brought good fortune and health. The serpent has been a symbol of
womanhood, and hence fertility and abundance, in many places around
the world. Another picture is the Seven Sleepers (Eshab-i Kehf) motif,
a calligraphic composition in the form of a galley, which was believed
to bring prosperity. This was commonly hung in shops and offices.
At one time coffeehouses were Istanbul's art galleries, and naturally
the pictures hung on the walls reflected the political and religious
inclinations of the time. Favourite subjects included a scene from the
Sahmeran myth about Zaloglu Rustem's defeat of Sefik the giant,
Suhrab's battle with the seven-headed dragon, and the Iron Wrestler
fighting the lion.
Early sous-verre paintings were done singly by hand, but as their
popularity rose, they began to be mass produced, so that many
identical copies of the same painting were to be seen.
As well as people who were artists by trade, glaziers also turned
their hand to painting under glass. The majority of these paintings
originate in Istanbul, because this was where Turkey's glass producers
were situated. However, a second centre of production was the city of
Konya, where there was also a tradition of calligraphy and painting,
encouraged by the teaching of the Mevlevi dervish order, whose founder
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi lived here in the 14th century. The sous-verre
paintings of Konya were for the most part in the form of calligraphic
compositions incorporating the name of Mevlana. In eastern and
southeastern Turkey, meanwhile, pictures were inspired by Shiite
symbolism.
Paintings with religious subjects included calligraphic inscriptions,
calligraphic compositions (in the form of mosques, ewers, jugs, fruit,
birds and medallions), and views of Mecca, Medina, mosques and the
Hejaz railway. Another genre was based on folk tales and myths, and
finally there were imperial armorial devices.
Another genre relating to Turkey was found in Tunisia, where public
admiration for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the struggle against the
Western powers and the Ottoman sultan, was reflected in paintings
under glass.
The fragility of glass is one of the main reasons for the rarity of
these delightful pictures, about whose anonymous artists very little
is known. Some interesting examples can be seen at Topkapi Palace, and
in the Museum of Divan Literature in Istanbul. There are also some of
these pictures in private collections, such as those of Balkan Naci
Islimyeli, Neveser Aksoy, Omer Bortacina, Sahin Paksoy and Hifzi
Topuz. A handful of leading Turkish artists are now using the
technique, including Mustafa Plevneli, Neveser Aksoy and Mevlut
Akyildiz, so that it may be sous-verre is in for a revival. l
* Eyup Coskun is a journalist.
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