Drawing a panoramic view of Istanbul

The people of Istanbul and visitors are now able to get up close and personal to see two important panoramas by Melling and Dunn in the small boutique art gallery run by the Istanbul Research Institute (IRI) just a few doors up from the Pera Museum

GÜL DEMIR and NIKI GAMM
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Virtually anyone who's curious about the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul prior to the advent of photography in the 19th century will have seen engravings or paintings by various professional and amateur artists who passed through Istanbul.

Some stand out more than others, depending on their abilities and training. Some chose to celebrate architecture, while others depicted people, street scenes and action. Yet they all had one thing in common – they were foreigners.

Of the foreign artists one name in particular stands out: Antoine-Ignace Melling.

His beautiful depictions of the city and of the Bosporus are reproduced frequently in books, or as prints. They show an Istanbul that one wishes still existed today, one the Turks until late in the 20th century didn't value as they should have.

There is also the work of Montagu B. Dunn, who is much less known but somewhat more recent. Looking at his work one can readily identify buildings – and not just the Galata Tower – that still exist today in spite of large scale fires in the 19th century.

The people of Istanbul and visitors are now able to get up close and personal to see two important panoramas by these artists in the small art gallery run by the Istanbul Research Institute (IRI) just a few doors up from the Pera Museum.

Both are part of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, set up in 2003 in order to foster research in culture, arts, education and healthcare. The IRI takes as its central focus the city of Istanbul from its beginning to the present day and moving outward from that center to the peripheries. So exhibitions mounted by the IRI are in line with the organization's goals.

For example, there was the display of drawings and buildings by Italian architect D'Aronco who was in Istanbul in the 19th century.

The current exhibition, “Long Stories: Istanbul in the Panoramas of Melling and Dunn,” will run though Aug 3. It consists of two panoramas that belong to the IRI and to the Kıraç Foundation. For the viewer, it offers a taste of what Istanbul was like historically in the eyes of two very good observers.

Melling's Panorama was originally 23.5 by 180 cm and provides a microcosmic view of Istanbul and how it looked prior to the advent of the photograph. The artist (1763-1831) was an exceptional person who came from a family of artists in the Karlsruhe area of Germany and arrived in Istanbul in 1784 as part of his travels in the East.

He was introduced to the sister of Sultan Selim III, Hatice Sultan, and she was so pleased with his drawings that she hired him to work for her. And thanks to his architectural training, Sultan Selim later on appointed him the imperial architect and he stamped his personality on a number of buildings in Istanbul such as the Çırağan Palace and the Besiktaş Palace.

When he went to Paris after 18 years in Istanbul, he became the landscape painter to the Empress Josephine. He later set up an engraving studio in Paris where he produced prints of his Istanbul works.

The result of course is that Melling's work is particularly well-known, so much so that his subsequent travels and drawings from the Netherlands are for the most part ignored.

Montague B. Dunn, on the other hand is so little known that a Google search doesn't bring up any results. So we have to thank the IRI for making him known to today's world.

He arrived in Istanbul as a naval officer at the time of the Crimean War (1853-56) and found a city undergoing changes initiated by the changing ideas initiated in the Tanzimat or Reform period of 1839. What is apparent in his drawings is his interest in the harbor of Istanbul, in ships and in buildings of military importance – especially in ships.

His depiction of the city (12.3 by 417.5 cm is strikingly realistic, much more so than Melling, although perhaps one can't actually say that since so many of buildings in his panorama no longer exist. But it is the closest record of what existed in that period since there was no photography.

The exhibition has been curated by Ekrem Işın with M. Baha Tanman as advisor. Işın is a writer and historian with a particular interest in Istanbul and in Sufism. He has been involved in curating other exhibitions elsewhere.

Tanman is a historian of art and architecture, he is particularly interested in mysticism and the architecture of the various Sufi sects that flourished in Istanbul.*

Istanbul Research Institute

Mesrutiyet Caddesi No. 47

Tepebasi, Istanbul

Tel: 0212 334 0900

Development of panoramic Istanbul

Maps have been found on clay tablets as early as the Babylonians around 2300 B.C. and the earliest maps as we know them were produced in the Greek and Roman eras. The name of Ptolemy is associated with the earliest known map although it is only known from a 15th century copy.

Panoramas on the other hand are relatively modern. “Panoramas constitute the visual narratives of a city. In each and every tale, we pursue the adventures of the cities that have created their own myths. Emperors and sultans cast their shadows in the images stretching before our eyes; the symbols of power piercing the sky are surrounded by the cultural texture of daily life, as well as the city's architectural composition and nature. The raison d'être of a panorama is to bear witness to the urban image that appears as a protagonist on the stage of history, set against the civilizational décor that the eye perceives at first sight.”

Panoramic maps of cities date from the 15th century and possibly the reason why the Ptolemy map was copied at this time. Although there are panoramic maps of Constantinople, the earliest one known today is that of Cristoforo Buondelmonti who was a Florentine.

His panorama was drawn in 1422, making it the only pre-Ottoman conquest map of the city. The work shows a small area surrounded by high walls. Recognizable monuments dot the landscape that also features small houses drawn as if from an eagle surveying the land from above and the main roads. It also includes the Galata area.

Subsequent panoramic views of Istanbul include that executed by Hartmann Schedel in 1493, Giovani Andrea di Vavassore in the first part of the 16th century and Guillaume-Joseph Grelot in 1680.

By the time of the latter, panoramic views have become much more realistic, more scientific, according to Ekrem Işın, the curator of the IRI exhibition. He sees Grelot as the harbinger of Melling whose work was carried out a century later. Grelot drew a picture of the old city of Istanbul from the hills of Galata.

Topkapi Palace and the waterfront pavilions assume their place in meticulous detail for the first time in a depiction where the natural texture comprised of cypress trees is strongly emphasized.

The foreground in the Grelot depiction does seem rather surrealistic. The buildings depicted are undoubtedly realistic but the scene is decidedly bucolic although that area of Galata must have been heavily populated by the end of the 1600s.

“Long Stories: Istanbul in the Panoramas of Melling and Dunn is not only a visual feast, but also a historical survey, which compels viewers to reconsider the identity of a city that left its mark on the art of panoramic engraving.”

Inform,07.06.08