Seventeeth century Ottoman architecture as influenced by political social and economical movements

Abstract

My thesis rests on the idea that the social, the political and the cultural events, in other words, the spiritual values and the moral judgements in a given community and age are reflected on the works of art of the period. Man, and more especially the artist who is the spokesman of the community, reacts to the stimuli of the outer world with its genious, creating thus works of art. This is more so in such arts as sculpture and painting which do not entail considerable financial difficulties. The situation becomes more difficult in the case of architecture, since constructions are materialized invariably following receipt of orders from customers. Architecture's main objective is utility, and aesthetic concerns come only after, once the functional and the technical problems have been resolved. So far, there has been no structure appraised strictly for its beauty. Only works meeting Man's requirement best are appreciated; if they are in harmony with the aesthetic conceptions of the age, so much the better. I have tried to illustrate this point by having recourse to the XVllth Century Ottoman artistic creations. As it will also be seen in the period in question, transition periods are the most interesting time segments for analysis as they give remarkable cues for a better insight to the anatomy of a given society. Seventeenth century is a period in which the centralized power which had been built up in the course of the preceding centuries, ever since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire is shaken. There are no new conquests, but the time is ripe for rebellions and revolts which give no respite; SuI tans and Grand Viziers come to- power only to be dethroned and removed from offi ce the v.ery next day, and the publi c di soriented is given to commerce with West. The intelligentsia has not many alternatives to offer to the State administrators who seem to b. at a loss. All these-find themselves reflected on the architecture of the period endowed with dynamism, far from being balanced which is the sign of stable equilibrium. The preceding period was the period in which Mimar Sinan, making the most of the facilities available had created his masterpieces in the brightest age of the Ottoman history and had earned a worldwide fame. The majority of the XVIIth century architects were unfortunate in that they had been preceded by such a genius. Some had known him personally and some had worked under his guidance and been closely acquainted with his concepts. It was naturally difficult to free themselves from his influence in search for originality, of the lack of which they were going to be accused. Mimar Sinan's works traced a line of evolution; each one of his creations introducing a novelty in the art of architecture, as detailed analyses have elucidated in the course of centuries. It was XVlIth century architecture's ineluctable fate to be accused of being a facsimile of this great man's genius. This was the reason of its relegation. Living conditions had changed, and in parallel with these new instinctual tendencies had emerged in arts, even though imperceptible at the outset. The sober and poised architecture of the classical period did no longer appeal to the XVIIth Century Man. Pointed minarets and high domes, decorations, architectural forms, all, reflect the revolts, the disappointments, the turmoils and the apprehensions of the community. One need no seek the origin of such changes in foreign influences. The Baroque Style had evolved, in the XVlIth Century Europe, in the wake of the Renaissance following the marriage of ideal beauty and harmony with the technological advances in the periods of war dominated by religious conflicts. The result was the eruption of an artistic style full of dynamism, based on sharp contrasts, hidden beneath plaited forms, aiming at bewildering the onlooker and praising itself of being accessible but with difficulty. The situation was no different in the Ottoman Empire. Though there were no religious conflicts and advances in technology, there were other factors which were to bring about similar results. XVllth Century Ottoman arts bear the typical characteristics of Baroque Style. If the statesmen in the XVIIth Century had not turned to the West to seek remedy for their political ills, the spontaneous evolution of the Ottoman architecture wmuld have produced its own Baroque Style. Behind the illusory foreign influences in the decorative arts, traditional architectural forms survived in the history of art and the Baroque style remained restricted to the metropolitan area in the Capital. On the assumption that the idea of eternal recurrence might well hold true also for arts, new tendencies arose, in the XVIIth Century, in reaction to foreign influences, which meant imitating the classical prototypes. In their outlines, views presented by this century widely differ from those of the AVIth and XVIIlth centuries in terms of artistic trends. However, a break-down per items of the' changes which took place after the 2nd half of the XVlth century, to be more precise, after the construction of Sinan's masterpiece, Selimiye, until the 18th century shows that the XVIlth Century was a remarkable transition period which played its part quietly. Anyhow, artistic trends never evolve in sharp spikes, but follow a smooth curve. As a ffiatter of fact, stirrings, imperceptible at the outset, begin to brew in time, then they undergo evolution after a gestation period, and attain maturity; but, we can detect these only through retrospective impartial looks. Dynamism reflected on the fa9ades of the building and intensive tile decorations are but moderate specimens of the excessive ornamentation of the Baroque period; Evliya Qelebi described the mansions of the period in the following terms: "They have running water facilities, fountains of water with a jet in the middle" which explains that the world famous Turkish horticulture was not a spontaneous growth but had its antecendent before the advent of the "Lale Devri" (Tulip Age).