MATERIALS

Materials

Miniature Painting

Miniature Painting

Islamic miniature painting is generally understood to mean small paintings that are or once were part of a manuscript, used as a frontispiece or an illustration for a text. Drawings and individual paintings have, however, also been preserved. They were either sketches or were intended to be placed as independent works of art in an album.

The miniatures usually had a paper base, but cardboard and in rare cases cotton or silk cloth were also used. The brilliant colors are usually opaque.

The oldest preserved miniature paintings were made in around the year 1000, but not until around 1200 were they found in larger numbers. Islamic miniature painting is often categorized rather summarily into four regional schools: the Arab, the Persian, the Indian, and the Ottoman Turkish.

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ISLAMIC ART: MINIATURE PAINTING

Islamic Art: Miniature painting

Item no. 47 of 50
19/2009, Mehmed 3.s kroning i Topkapi-paladset i 1595 / Mehmed III’s Coronation in the Topkapi Palace in 1595
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Illustrated Manuscript of Seyyid Lokman on Mehmed III’s Campaign in Hungary

Turkey, Istanbul; c. 1600
Each leaf: 30.2 × 18.2 cm

This manuscript contains, among other things, a hitherto unknown text by the famous Ottoman historian Seyyid Lokman that primarily deals with Sultan Mehmed III’s campaign in Hungary in 1596. The five double miniatures are related to the ones that were produced in the sultans’ court studios, but are of an inferior quality. The client was probably an important personage at the court, and not the sultan himself.

The historical Ottoman manuscripts are known for quite painstaking representations of reality. Both their typographical depictions and their renditions of architecture and costumes can be valuable sources of information.

The double miniatures depict the following events:
Mehmed III’s Coronation in the Topkapi Palace in 1595 (fol. 15b-16a).

The Battle of Hacova (Keresztes) in Hungary in 1596, When the Ottomans Vanquished the Hapsburg Forces (fol. 17b-18a).

Mehmed III Arrives at the Head of the Victorious Army at Davudpasha, a Suburb of Istanbul (fol. 20.b-21.a).

Mehmed III Received in Davudpasha (fol. 22b-23a).

Mehmed III Enthroned in the Davudpasha Pavilion (fol. 24b-25a).

Inv. no. 19/2009