SPRING IN OTTOMAN ART
The mid-16th century saw a return to naturalism
in the Ottoman decorative arts, and one of the most popular motifs
was fruit trees in blossom. This symbol of spring was often combined
with tulips, roses and other flowers, and depicted sometimes as
an entire tree and sometimes as branches alone. Another form was
blossoming branches arranged like bouquet in a vase, or encircling
a medallion like a creeper.
 It
is difficult to identify the species with certainty, although the
presence or absence of leaves, or the position of the blossom on
the branch gives clues as to whether it might be plum, cherry or
apple. Trees in blossom appeared in almost every sphere of decoration
at this period, and like many other innovations, originated in the
arts of the book. The finest miniature paintings and illumination
were executed by artists working in the palace workshops, and the
new motifs and compositions which they created inspired other craftsmen
producing objects of beauty in many different techniques and materials
for the palace.
Karamemi, an artist who began working at the palace
in the middle of the 16th century, used the spring blossom motif
in a manuscript book of poetry, the Muhibbi Divani (Istanbul University
Library T. 5467) , whose illumination bears his signature. Blossom
appears in the frontispiece, marginal decoration in gold halarîa
work, and the tiny illuminated panels separating sections of text
in this manuscrip.
The composition of the frontispiece was repeated
by the same artist in a Koran (Topkapi Palace Library Y. 999) and
in the Suleymanname (H. 1517). In another manuscript in the Suleymaniye
Library (Laleli 16) there is a superb composition of spring motifs
executed in gold and pastel colours.
The compositions on the endleafs of a manuscript of Forty Traditions
of the Prophet (Topkapi Palace Library EH 2851) seem to carry us
into a beautiful garden on a spring day.
 Here
the trees in blossom are worked in lacquer. Although there is no
signature, we know beyond any trace of doubt that this is the work
of Karamemi. The compositions on the endleafs of a manuscript of
Forty Traditions of the Prophet (Topkapi Palace Library EH 2851)
seem to carry us into a beautiful garden on a spring day. Here the
trees in blossom are worked in lacquer. Although there is no signature,
we know beyond any trace of doubt that this is the work of Karamemi.
Blossom also appears on textiles of many kinds.
The campaign tents abandoned after the Siege of Vienna at the end
of the 17th century by grand vizier Kara Mustafa Pasa, and which
have been carefully preserved at the Wavel Museum in the Polish
city of Cracow, have several examples of blossom worked on felt
amongst their designs.
A multiple prayer mat in the Museum of Turkish and
Islamic Arts in Istanbul has a tree in blossom as the main motif
in each of the panels. Again we find this motif on a caftan worn
by Sultan Ahmed I as a child.
Best known, perhaps, of all blossom designs are
those on iznik ware tiles, and examples of these are so numerous
that it would take pages to list them in full. Finest of all are
the 16th and 17th century tiles in Topkapi Palace Harem, and others
which come first to mind can be seen in Rustem Pasa Mosque, Sultan
Ahmet Mosque, Haghia Sophia Library, the Imperial Kasir of Yeni
Mosque, the Mausoleum of Hurrem Sultan, Eski Valide Mosque in Uskudar,
and Selimiye Mosque in Edirne.
Once upon a time Istanbul was a city filled with
gardens, and those gardens with fruit trees. Today when there are
increasingly fewer fruit trees, we miss seeing trees in blossom,
but we can take consolation in the beautiful works of art which
they inspired.
* Prof Dr Yildiz Demiriz is an art historian
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