- SU SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM ACQUIRES EXQUISITE WORKS IN LINE WITH ITS “COLLECTION STRATEGY”
- THE NAILE HANIM PORTRAIT IS INCLUDED IN THE SU SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM’S COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS AS THE 7TH OSMAN HAMDI BEY WORK
- “FOUNDATION CHARTER OF SULTAN BAYEZID II”, AND “THE GENEALOGY OF WORLD DYNASTIES” BECOME THE NEW WORKS IN THE SU SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM’S OTTOMAN CALLIGRAPHY COLLECTION
SU Sakip Sabancı Museum goes on acquiring works selected elaborately in line with its “collection strategy”.
In this approach, it has added to its collections three further works of the Ottoman era. The Museum has bought “Naile Hanim’s Portrait by Osman Hamdi Bey”, “Foundation Charter of Sultan Bayezid II”, and “The Genealogy of World Dynasties”.
Bought at the auction organised by Portakal Sanat ve Kultur Evi and added to the museum’s collection, “Naile Hanim’s Portrait” has become the 7th Osman Hamdi Bey work in the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Collection of Paintings. The work is also the Collection’s 4th portrait by Osman Hamdi Bey. Naile Hanim’s Portrait was created in oil on canvas, 52cm x 41cm (20,5" x 16,1") in size.
Being the first artist who dealt with the theme of woman in Turkish painting, Osman Hamdi Bey frequently employed the female figure in his oriental paintings, being served by his wife and daughter as his models. However, this portrait added to the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Collection of Paintings is unique with its gilded background which he had never used before, and which fails in his other paintings. Being a peerless one among the portraits painted by Osman Hamdi Bey, the work is, so to speak, a reflection of the synthesis of the Ottoman Palace portraits, and the Byzantine icons of the past.
- The new works in the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Ottoman Calligraphy Collection…
Foundation Charter of Sultan Bayezid II, the most precious item of the auction held at the Esma Sultan Residence under the title "Resul-u Purkerem", has also been acquired by the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum who possesses the most important private calligraphy collection in Turkey, and excellently represents our cultural heritage abroad.
Being a significant document for the Ottoman history, the Foundation Charter consists of 168 lines written in carbon black ink. 24cm-long and 475cm-wide, the Foundation Charter contains on its top a gilded composition of bismillah, beneath of which there are the foundation-related hadith and prayers. Contents of the Foundation Charter which is about the foundation’s property endowed by Ilyas bin Abdullah, outlines the boundaries of a great deal of real estate units located in Istanbul and Corlu, and contains the terms and conditions related to the management of such establishments. Contents of the Foundation Charter drafted by Dervish Hasan bin Ilyas al-Bursevi in the year 1503 is also of importance with its reflecting the Ottoman state government philosophy, and the centralist structure of the Period of Bayezid II.
Another work added to the collection along with the Foundation Charter is the World Dynasties’ Genealogy, dated to the 16th Century, which contains the family trees of all the prophets from Adam to Mohammad, and of all the Islamic dynasties up to Sultan Murad III. Around the names placed inside gilded-framed roundels, the major events occurred during that period were recorded. Created by order of Sultan Selim II, as per its preamble, the work is of significance not only for its artistic quality, but also for its contents, which make it a historical document.
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Sabancı University Sakip Sabancı Museum – Collection of Paintings
SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Collection of Paintings consists of select samples from the early Turkish painting, and works of foreign artists who had worked in Istanbul during the last period of the Ottoman Empire. Concentrated on the period from 1850 to 1950, the collection includes works of local artists such as Raphael, Konstantin Kapidagli, Osman Hamdi Bey, Seker Ahmed Pasha, Suleyman Seyyid, Nazmi Ziya Guran, Ibrahim Calli, Feyhaman Duran, Fikret Mualla; and of foreign artists such as Fausto Zonaro and Ivan Aivazovsky.
The Collections of the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum comprise 541 paintings in total. With the latest addition, 7 thereof are the works of Osman Hamdi Bey.
SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Ottoman Calligraphy Collection
SU Sakip Sabancı Museum possesses the major Ottoman Calligraphy Collection in Turkey. The SU Sakip Sabancı Museum’s Calligraphy Collection offers a comprehensive view into the 500-year-old samples of the Ottoman Calligraphy. Consisting of 583 works, the Collection covers the works of the famous calligraphers who lived between early 15th century and the 20th century.
Among the large number of handwritten books included in the Collection of the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum, it is the Koran copies which occupy the principal place. Another major part of the calligraphic collections of the Museum consists of individual verses called “kit’a”.
The Sakip Sabancı Ottoman Calligraphy Collection was exhibited within the Exhibition “Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakip Sabancı Collection” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (11 September - 13 December 1998, New York, N.Y., USA); County Museum of Art (25 February - 17 May 1999, Los Angeles, CA, USA); Harvard University Art Museums (9 October 1999 - 2 January 2000, Cambridge, Mass., USA); the Exhibition “Calligraphies Ottomanes: Collection de Musée Sakip Sabancı, Université Sabancı” at the Louvre Museum (16 March - 29 May 2000, Paris, France); the Exhibition “Siegel des Sultans: Osmanische Kalligrafie Aus Dem Sakip Sabancı Museum, Sabancı Universität” at the Deutsche Guggenheim Museum (3 February - 8 April 2001, Berlin, Germany); at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (16 May - 15 July 2001 Frankfurt, Germany).
Following its transfer to the SU Sakip Sabancı Museum, the Calligraphy Collection was visited by the residents of Madrid within the Exhibition “Lines in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from Sakip Sabancı Museum” at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando during 11 December 2007 - 02 March 2008; and by those of Seville within the Exhibition “Ottoman Calligraphy from Sakip Sabancı Museum” at Real Alcázar during 04 April 2008 - 15 June 2008.