Osman Hamdi Bey’s At the Mosque Door and the Urgency of Painting

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Gülru Çakmak reveals how 19th-century artists in the Middle East and North Africa reckoned with new tools, materials, and tastes from local perspectives.

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Gülru Çakmak reveals how 19th-century artists in the Middle East and North Africa reckoned with new tools, materials, and tastes from local perspectives.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 20, 2024

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This video video discusses Osman Hamdi, a significant Ottoman intellectual and artist born in Istanbul in 1843 who died in 1910. He contributed considerably to the cultural scene of the Ottoman Empire as a bureaucrat, director of the Museum of Antiquities, founder of the School of Fine Arts, and pioneering archaeologist while maintaining an active painting practice for five decades.

Hamdi's artwork, especially the oil painting "At the Mosque Door," reflects a blend of tradition and modernity. In the context of the 19th-century Ottoman society, oil painting represented a move towards modernity and Europeanization. The painting features ordinary characters outside a mosque, depicting a nuanced portrayal of Ottoman life and identity. Unlike typical Orientalist imagery, which often exoticized Eastern cultures, Hamdi's works challenge stereotypes and offer thoughtful reinterpretations.

This video video also contrasts Hamdi’s approach to painting with that of contemporaries like Claude Monet. While Monet aimed to capture the immediacy of a fleeting moment, Hamdi saw painting as a medium that synthesizes long-term historical processes. In "At the Mosque Door," Hamdi embeds multiple self-portraits within the scene, emphasizing the interconnectedness of personal and collective history.

Through this work, Hamdi seeks to engage viewers in recognizing the historical depth of their present. Ultimately, he portrays oil painting as a powerful tool for conveying deeper truths about identity and heritage, contrasting with Monet's focus on the transient moment. The discussion highlights how both artists grappled with the role and capabilities of oil painting in a rapidly changing world at the end of the 19th century.

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Osman Debe was a prominent Ottoman intellectual,

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an artist who lived during the late 19th

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and early 20th centuries.

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Um, he was born in Istanbul, the capital

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of the Ottoman Empire in 1843, and he died in 1910.

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And he played a significant role in the cultural

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and artistic landscape of the Ottoman Empire.

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He wore many hats in his lifetime, we could say.

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Um, he was an important bureaucrat.

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He became the director of the Museum

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of Antiquities in Istanbul.

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Um, he also founded the School of Fine Arts in Istanbul.

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He was a reformist bureaucrat

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who was instrumental in the implementation

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of the antiquities laws,

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and he himself was a pioneering archeologist.

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Now, what is very important to me is that in addition

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to these positions, he sustained a painting practice that's,

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that lasted five decades from the 1860s

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until his death in 1910.

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Now, when we think about oil painting,

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to the 21st century eyes, the medium

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of oil painting on canvas may seem outmoded.

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But if we reflect back to,

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the 19th century Ottoman context

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for the Ottoman modernizing intelligentsia,

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of which Hamdi was a member, this was a radically new

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and innovative medium.

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So the medium of oil painting on canvas,

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and it was strongly associated with modernity

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and with Europeanization.

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So let's keep that in mind.

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Um, prospective drawing was a relatively recent methods

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introduced at the first

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engineering school in Istanbul in the first half

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of the 19th century, where it was taught by German

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and French instructors.

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And the first ottman artist

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who practiced oil painting on easel came from the ranks

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of the military in the 1820s and thirties.

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For that reason, now Hamdi belongs to the next generation

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of artists, and

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moreover, he had an opportunity

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to receive painting training in Paris in the studio

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of the French painter Jean Eron, in the 1860s.

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Now, when we examine his works, for example,

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at the mosque door that,

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I have written about in the chapter that you mentioned,

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we encounter what is commonly termed as orientalist imagery.

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Now, Orientalism, in its broader sense, refers

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to the depiction of Eastern cultures by western artists,

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often through a lens of ex exoticism and romanticization.

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Um, but when we look at orientalist imagery in the context

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of Osman harm, this works, we are referring to a style

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that depicts, differently than the

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expected ex exoticization of the orient.

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Uh, while some orientalist works perpetuated stereotypes

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and misconceptions about Eastern cultures in Hyundai based

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paintings, including at the mosque door,

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we see a challenge,

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Reinterpretation of these conventions.

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Um, he infuses his works with an intelligence

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that we think some of these

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established patterns established visual patterns

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of depicting the Oriental other.

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And in this context, it's crucial

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to understand the terms Ottoman and Turkish as well.

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Now, the Ottoman Empire will West Multicultural

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and Ma Ethnic Empire.

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It spans across three continents with its capital in,

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Istanbul today.

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While Turkish primarily refers to the dominant ethnic group

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in the Ottoman Empire, the term ottman

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and encompasses the broader cultural, political

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and social context of the empire's,

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diverse populations and territories.

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So when we look at Osman Ham, these art in the second half

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of the 19th century and the first decade

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of the 20th century, what we see is a reflection

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of this rich tapestry of influences

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offering a nuanced portrayal of ottoman life and identity,

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but also a very intelligent

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and thoughtful reflection on modernity.

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What is modernity? This is a captivating at the mosque.

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Dar is a captivating painting by Osman harm debe

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that he painted, in the early 1890s.

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And it's initially seems like a

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very straightforward painting.

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It looks like it's an everyday life in front of a mosque,

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featuring a group of everyday types,

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everyday characters engaged in

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conversation and contemplation.

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Uh, we see ladies there, street urchins,

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man belonging to different social classes,

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different ethnic groups, different backgrounds.

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Um, however, there is much more than

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what meets the eye about the context.

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Before I go into unpacking the painting

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for you a little bit more, in terms of historical context,

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the painting was created in the second half

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of the 19th century, which was a period of profound change

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and transition in the Ottoman Empire.

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It was marked by various efforts to modernize

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and reform the society, while grappling with the challenges

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of maintaining cultural identity and tradition.

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So when we look at the painting,

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with this information in, mind,

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within the broader context of ham's body of work,

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the painting is relevant

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to contemporary discussions surrounding not only cultural

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heritage and identity, but also modernity.

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And here what I want

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to emphasize is Hamdi is inquiring the role

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and function of oil painting in modern times.

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Now, first of all, I want to give a brief description of

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what we see when we look at the painting.

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Uh, we see a towering building entrance

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to a mosque, right, a temple.

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And, the human beings

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that are populating it are in front of it.

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And if you look at the painting,

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the human beings are fairly small compared to how large, how

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how expansive the building facade is.

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Now, Hamdi has, looked at various actual mosques,

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not only in Istanbul,

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but in the former ottoman capital of Bura,

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which was very important for 19th century

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ottoman narratives of a bygone golden age.

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So the period of Ottoman empires rise to world dominance,

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let's say, was marked by,

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its capital moving its evangel moving, the capital

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that it had built from to the west of the country.

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But Bursaw was this golden age capital,

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and the buildings there in the 19th century, those 15th,

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16th century buildings were going through restoration.

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Um, so a lot

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of people had turned their attention to those buildings there.

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So Hyundai in particular,

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is looking very carefully at a mosque called

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Moraia Mosque in Bura.

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And if you put a picture of what the facade

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of Muradia Mosque looks like side by side

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with Hyundai's painting, you will see

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that he has made a number of modifications there.

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The most important modification, as far as I'm concerned,

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is Hyundai to the top of the facade has embedded,

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scripts in the top of, at the very top, we see a

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qfi Arabic script, carved into the stone,

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qfi script In the context of 19th century, Ottomans

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signaled the ancient Islamic tradition.

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So when Hamdi puts, imagines,

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puts a carved qfi epigraphic banter

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that quotes a verse from the Quran.

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He is signaling to the beginning of Islamic dynasties.

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Now, that's at the top of the,

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the top band of the facade.

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Now, when we come further down, we see some colorful tiles,

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some polychrome tiles, as well as yet another script,

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from another, verse and Quran,

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but this time in color tiles.

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And this refers to the previously mentioned golden age

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of Ottoman art, the 15th

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and especially 16th century Ottoman art,

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that perfected the Islamic art traditions

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that it had inheritance

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and reached, what again, the 19th century Otto

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and very many others in the 19th century consider to be,

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the peak of Islamic art in the 16th century.

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So, you know, Hamdi is very intelligently

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positioning these colorful tile au tile bands

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signaling the peak of culture,

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cultural civilization in the ottoman,

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empire in the 16th century under the Qfi script.

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So the facade of the mosque,

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in a way turns into a time machine, right,

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that transverses the here

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and the now, the present thanks to oil painting,

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what the facade, this imaginary facade of the painting,

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the mosque that's on the imagines is doing, is actually

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taking us back to this deep time, this long duration

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of history that we as individuals

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with limited lifespans couldn't have imagined,

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couldn't have experienced.

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But it's the, it's in the hands of the artist.

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It's, the power of the oil painting itself to synthesize

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the past, to integrate the past

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and make us see this long duration of history,

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that brings us to the present

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that underlies everything in the present.

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So with this information in mind,

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when you look at the lower part of the painting,

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and when you look at the human figures

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that are populating the present, what you see is

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that they are, for the most part, unaware

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of this long duration of history that has enabled them

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to exist in the present, right?

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They're going about their business.

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Nobody is looking up at the mosque

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and seeing all these layers of history

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that ham de has literally embedded almost like a

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chronological timetable onto the facade

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of this mosque, right?

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And you asked, how Hamdi uses photographic vernacular.

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Uh, he uses it in a very, very thoughtful,

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in a very intelligent way, which shows us

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that Hamdi was following,

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very closely the developments in photography,

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not only street photography and studio photography,

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but also some cutting edge experimentations,

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with animal locomotion

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and photography that figures like, Edward,

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my Bridge were conducting at that time.

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When we look at the human figures there, we see that there's

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a photographic vernacular almost used, referred to,

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very explicitly referred

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to in the way in which Hamdi depicts them.

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He uses light and shade,

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and even the poses that he captures, he clearly wants

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to refer to photography.

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Um, I think Hamdi's incorporation

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of the photographic vernacular is a very intelligent

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approach to dealing with the role

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of painting in this period.

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And I'm going to explain why now, Hyundai's way of

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using the photographic vernacular in these little small

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human, beings at the bottom adds a sense of immediacy

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to, to their presence, right?

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And there are some other photographic

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motives that HHI is using.

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For example, take a look at the pigeons

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that are cascading across the stone facade of the mosque

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or the ladies who are climbing the steps of the mosque.

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Uh, hamdi is clearly looking at experimental photographs,

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by figures like et mare

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and, Edward, my Bridge

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and Thomas Akins, who were engaged in experimenting

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with what the photography could do in the 1880s

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and 1890s for these photographers, what was important was

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to use the photographic device as a tool

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that could surpass the human eye

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to capture details in nature

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that human eye couldn't capture, for example, mere.

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And my bridge developed different devices on different

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techniques to capture how an animal moved

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to divide the movement of the animal that would span,

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let's say, three seconds into its milliseconds in a way,

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to capture these details that human eye couldn't see, right?

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It would be too fast.

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So for these, pioneers of photographic experimentation,

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the camera was a superhuman device that could,

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penetrate the secrets of nature

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that the human eye couldn't see.

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So when we go back to phos, mosque facade,

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and when we look at these motives

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of pigeons cascading across the stone facet,

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or the women ascending the steps of the mosque,

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there are parasols in various states

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of being open or closed.

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Uh, we, it's very clear

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that Hamdi is very explicitly referencing, works by mare

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and my bridge and others.

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Um, it's very clear that these motives,

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they declared their kinship, the photographic studies

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of human locomotion

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and animal locomotion produced by mare and others.

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However, I do not think that K's painting tries

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to imitate photography.

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I think s doing something very smart.

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I think Hyundai's painting is making strategic use

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of these available photographic vernaculars,

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so strict street photographer studio photography,

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but also these experimentations with photograph,

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in order to signal the here

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and the now that is constantly fleeting against the backdrop

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of deep and invisible structures of history,

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the possible venues that Osman harm de a person

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with resources like Osman Harm de had

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for expressing his thoughts

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and for shaping the world, changing the world, right?

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Uh, he was a very important bureaucrat.

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So, you know, he had direct impact on what kind

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of policies were drafted.

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He was the founder of the School of Fine Arts.

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You know, he had direct impact over

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how fine arts was thought.

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He was the director of the Antiquities Museum,

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like he had direct impact over,

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how the ultimate empires whilst diverse layers of historical

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heritage, heritage were presented for, represented right?

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And he himself was an archeologist, so he actively went

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and dug an excavator to pass it.

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So why did he paint?

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Clearly there was something very specific about

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what the medium of oil painting could do that none

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of these other venues, could have addressed.

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So what is that specific thing

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that only oil painting could have done that is not

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to imitate photography, right?

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That clearly oil painting as a medium

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is offering something unique that, you know,

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NDI continued painting till the end of his life.

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That is a very interesting question.

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So when we go to a question of the question of the role

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and the definition of the art of painting in modern times,

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I think again, when we look closely at the,

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at the mosque door, we see really a compelling response

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to the question of the role

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and the urgency of the art of painting in modern times.

15:33.935 --> 15:36.835
So again, we're talking about an remarked by rapid

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societal changes and shifting cultural paradigms.

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So artists, not only ham,

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but everywhere in the world, were grappling with questions

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of tradition, identity, innovation, and modernity.

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So's dy based painting

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or painting is navigating these complexities,

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by engaging with traditional ottoman themes,

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but also contemporary artist techniques.

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Now, what could painting do?

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I want to give you a very specific example from this

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painting to show you what painting could do that

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no other medium could do,

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not even photography could do, right?

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We said that photography can capture only the here

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and the now, even things that human eye cannot see,

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but only what is currently existing right now.

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Right now, there is, there are some details in home.

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This painting that's really open up our understanding of

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what this painting is trying to do.

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Uh, and one of these details

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really asserts a fundamental distinction between a painter

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and a camera, a painting and photography.

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There are multiple self-portraits of the artist embedded

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among these figures

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that we see populating in the background.

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For example, the beggar who is sitting cross-legged,

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in the foreground, his face is Osman face.

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Uh, the Arabic clerk who is standing next to him is

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yet another portrait of Osman.

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There is an old beck, an old warrior warrior seated

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to the left of the, mosque door behind them.

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His face is half in the shadows.

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That's again, Osman self portrait,

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and the imam, the very imam of the mosque in the lower right

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of the painting, his folding up his sleeves in preparations

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for taking ablutions.

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He also also carries the distinct facial features

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of Osman Hambi himself.

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So we are talking about an impossible proliferation

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of the artist masquerades of multiple contemporary types.

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Once we see this detail, we, this guarantees

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that we read this painting, neither as photography

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mechanically capturing the truth of nature,

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nor as a simple oriental genre painting

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seemingly reporting observed

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reality ontologically.

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When we think about analog photography, we remember

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that it relies on the already existing presence

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of the photographed object.

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But painting as layered

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and conceptualized in NDIS at the mosque door insists on

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the oil paintings in the penance of any slavish imitation

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of the here and now by referencing photographic aesthetics

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in the painting, Hamdi's work actually deeply reflects on

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the role of the medium of painting in opposition

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to the medium of photography In modern times,

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and as far as I'm concerned, Hamdi proposes painting,

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oil painting as the quintessential medium

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that can make visible long durations

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of history underlying the present moment.

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So painting not only encompasses the superhuman

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eye of the camera that can capture the instant

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and divide it into smaller units like the cascades

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of the pigeon walking, the ladies walking up the steps

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with their parasols.

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But painting supersedes photography in gesturing at the long

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duration of historical processes,

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otherwise invisible to the observing individual.

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So if photography is a device of analysis

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that can capture the here

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and now of nature, NDI seems

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to argue painting is the superior medium of synthesis

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that can show nature as history in its long processes

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revealing the truth about where we come from and who we are.

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Um, and of course, I think it's very significant

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that the artist is embedding his style portraits too,

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to signal the importance, the specificity

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of the artist himself as a mediator

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between us, the ordinary mortals

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who go about our daily lives, not being aware of this,

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you know, looming presence of grant history.

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So he's mediating between us

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and this grant, this deep, this overwhelming,

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all inspiring history that we are products of in a way.

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It's a great example. Monet.

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Let's take Monet, let's take Hamdi

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and let's think about, whether the questions

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that Hamdi are, are grappling with are specific

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to Hyundai, and how other artists of that period

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are answering these questions.

20:17.125 --> 20:18.285
So what is Hamdi's problem?

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Hamdi's problem is that we are all products

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right here and now.

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We are all products of long durations of history, long,

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long-term processes, long-term, biological processes,

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linguistic processes, civilizational processes, right?

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Um, even geological processes. But we are not aware of it.

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And within our human limitations,

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we cannot really talk about it, right?

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Science can look into it like geology can look into it,

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linguistics can look into it.

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So what's the role of the artist today?

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Are artists just inventing things?

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Then what's the value of invention? Right?

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So a lot of artists, not only in the Ottoman Empire,

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but in Europe, in the states, all around the world,

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are dealing with these questions of the role of art

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during, this period of the ascendancy of science.

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While science is understanding, developing insights

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into all sorts of complex processes that lead to today,

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the here and the now, all

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of us in all our complications, right?

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Like, what does painting do? Should we even paint?

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Um, so Monnet has a completely different response

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than hamdi to that question.

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Now, first of all, to direct answer your question,

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what's the relationship between Mona and Hyundai?

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There is no direct interaction documented

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between the two artists as far as I know,

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but, you know, historical archive,

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something may come up.

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That being said, what I find interesting is,

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their respective contributions to,

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thinking about the abilities of the medium of oil painting

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or for valuable insights into diverse ranges

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of influences shaping the trajectory of modern art.

22:04.575 --> 22:05.835
So in comparing Mona

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and Harm de it's important to

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recognize their share shared timeframe

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and the divergent paths they took in their art.

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Um, they are contemporaries, so it may be helpful to compare

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two works of them are made around the same time period.

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So on the one hand, let's keep Hamdi's at the mosque door.

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And now let's,

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take one specific example from Monnet just

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around the same time that Hamdi was

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finalizing at the mosque door.

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Uh, Monnet launched into a series

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of paintings depicting the Medieval Cathedral of Juan,

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a project that would last

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around three years with fits and starts.

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And the series would ultimately,

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culminate in a major exhibition in May

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of 1895 at the gallery of the art dealer Duran in Paris.

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Um, one example, national Gallery

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of Art in Washington, DC has a fantastic painting from

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that series one cathedral West facade painted around 1894.

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Now, Monet in this painting

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clearly focuses on using the oil

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or the medium of oil paint to capture

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the essence of a single moment, almost sculpting the surface

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of his painting with layers of paint.

23:26.365 --> 23:28.705
Now, when I say he's using the male of medium

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of oil painting to capture of the essence

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of a single moment, let's think about the reality

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of oil painting.

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It's not like a snapshot

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that you can take with the camera, right?

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Oil painting, even if it looks like a moment,

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takes a long time to complete, right?

23:48.455 --> 23:51.315
So the painting, Mona's painting may look like it shows us

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really a split second that hits the eye, right of the facade

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of the one cathedral when the sun

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is sitting from a particular angle.

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But Monnet actually spends several months

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painting this painting, right?

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So when this painting is built on this fiction

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of an instant, but the reality of the creation

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of the painting actually based on long duration, right?

24:15.065 --> 24:18.005
So, but for Monet, clearly what is very urgent

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and what painting can do is to convey the immediacy

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of the artist's personal subjective experience of seeing

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how those sunlight hit the surface of the one cathedral

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in one specific instant, right?

24:35.345 --> 24:39.005
And it's very clear that Monet is rejecting any certainty

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about capturing historical processes

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beyond the fleeting present.

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Clearly, Monnet doesn't believe that the painting

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can not only capture the here and the now,

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but also show us these long-term processes.

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Like if as an artist I cannot witness those long-term

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processes, how can I make a painting

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that is truthful, right?

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So that's Mona's approach.

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Like for him, truthful painting can show only what he knows

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to be a fact, and the only thing he knows

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to be a fact is his immediate sensory experience, right?

25:19.245 --> 25:23.425
Um, so Monet is very, very pessimistic

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about the abilities of the medium of oil painting.

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So now when we look at,

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what HHI is doing at the mosque door,

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Hyundai is clearly not seeing painting as a passive medium,

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but as an active tool that is capable

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of revealing long-term processes to contemporary viewers.

25:46.085 --> 25:48.345
Um, his optimism lay in the belief

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that oil painting had the power

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to ate truths about our origins

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and identities almost on par with science, right?

25:56.855 --> 25:58.065
Attributing to the canvas

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and active role in synthesizing historical truths

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and present this canvas to, you know,

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clueless individual viewers.

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And suddenly they experience, they have a sense

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and inner understanding, a deeper understanding of

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where they are in relationship to the history of everything.

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So while Mona focuses on the transient nature

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of the present moment, Hamdi embraces oil painting

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as a means of accessing deeper historical

26:28.945 --> 26:30.285
and ontological truths.

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There are different perspectives reflect the multiplicity

26:34.005 --> 26:38.165
of art approaches artists took in grappling with the limits

26:38.305 --> 26:41.685
and purpose of oil painting at the end of the 19th century.

Quick Answers

Osman Hamdi: An Ottoman Artistic Pioneer

00:00:00 - Osman Debe was a prominent Ottoman intellectual, an artist who lived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. he was born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1843, and he died in 1910. And he played a significant role in the cultural and artistic landscape of the Ottoman Empire. He wore many hats in his lifetime, we could say. he was an important bureaucrat. He became the director of the Museum
00:00:34 - he also founded the School of Fine Arts in Istanbul. He was a reformist bureaucrat who was instrumental in the implementation of the antiquities laws, and he himself was a pioneering archeologist. Now, what is very important to me is that in addition to these positions, he sustained a painting practice that's, that lasted five decades from the 1860s until his death in 1910.
00:01:05 - to the 21st century eyes, the medium of oil painting on canvas may seem outmoded. But if we reflect back to, the 19th century Ottoman context for the Ottoman modernizing intelligentsia, of which Hamdi was a member, this was a radically new and innovative medium. So the medium of oil painting on canvas, and it was strongly associated with modernity and with Europeanization.
00:01:34 - prospective drawing was a relatively recent methods introduced at the first engineering school in Istanbul in the first half of the 19th century, where it was taught by German and French instructors. And the first ottman artist who practiced oil painting on easel came from the ranks of the military in the 1820s and thirties. For that reason, now Hamdi belongs to the next generation of artists, and moreover, he had an opportunity to receive painting training in Paris in the studio
00:02:07 - Now, when we examine his works, for example, at the mosque door that, I have written about in the chapter that you mentioned, we encounter what is commonly termed as orientalist imagery. Now, Orientalism, in its broader sense, refers to the depiction of Eastern cultures by western artists, often through a lens of ex exoticism and romanticization. but when we look at orientalist imagery in the context
00:02:39 - that depicts, differently than the expected ex exoticization of the orient. while some orientalist works perpetuated stereotypes and misconceptions about Eastern cultures in Hyundai based paintings, including at the mosque door, we see a challenge, Reinterpretation of these conventions. he infuses his works with an intelligence that we think some of these

Osman Hamdi: Art, Identity, and Modernity

00:03:10 - of depicting the Oriental other. And in this context, it's crucial to understand the terms Ottoman and Turkish as well. Now, the Ottoman Empire will West Multicultural and Ma Ethnic Empire. It spans across three continents with its capital in, Istanbul today. While Turkish primarily refers to the dominant ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire, the term ottman and encompasses the broader cultural, political
00:03:41 - diverse populations and territories. So when we look at Osman Ham, these art in the second half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, what we see is a reflection of this rich tapestry of influences offering a nuanced portrayal of ottoman life and identity, but also a very intelligent and thoughtful reflection on modernity. What is modernity? This is a captivating at the mosque. Dar is a captivating painting by Osman harm debe
00:04:14 - And it's initially seems like a very straightforward painting. It looks like it's an everyday life in front of a mosque, featuring a group of everyday types, everyday characters engaged in conversation and contemplation. we see ladies there, street urchins, man belonging to different social classes, different ethnic groups, different backgrounds. however, there is much more than
00:04:44 - Before I go into unpacking the painting for you a little bit more, in terms of historical context, the painting was created in the second half of the 19th century, which was a period of profound change and transition in the Ottoman Empire. It was marked by various efforts to modernize and reform the society, while grappling with the challenges of maintaining cultural identity and tradition. So when we look at the painting,
00:05:18 - within the broader context of ham's body of work, the painting is relevant to contemporary discussions surrounding not only cultural heritage and identity, but also modernity. And here what I want to emphasize is Hamdi is inquiring the role and function of oil painting in modern times. Now, first of all, I want to give a brief description of what we see when we look at the painting. we see a towering building entrance
00:05:48 - And, the human beings that are populating it are in front of it. And if you look at the painting, the human beings are fairly small compared to how large, how how expansive the building facade is. Now, Hamdi has, looked at various actual mosques, not only in Istanbul, but in the former ottoman capital of Bura, which was very important for 19th century

Reflecting Ottoman History Through Art

00:06:20 - So the period of Ottoman empires rise to world dominance, let's say, was marked by, its capital moving its evangel moving, the capital that it had built from to the west of the country. But Bursaw was this golden age capital, and the buildings there in the 19th century, those 15th, 16th century buildings were going through restoration. so a lot of people had turned their attention to those buildings there.
00:06:50 - is looking very carefully at a mosque called Moraia Mosque in Bura. And if you put a picture of what the facade of Muradia Mosque looks like side by side with Hyundai's painting, you will see that he has made a number of modifications there. The most important modification, as far as I'm concerned, is Hyundai to the top of the facade has embedded, scripts in the top of, at the very top, we see a
00:07:24 - qfi script In the context of 19th century, Ottomans signaled the ancient Islamic tradition. So when Hamdi puts, imagines, puts a carved qfi epigraphic banter that quotes a verse from the Quran. He is signaling to the beginning of Islamic dynasties. Now, that's at the top of the,
00:07:53 - Now, when we come further down, we see some colorful tiles, some polychrome tiles, as well as yet another script, from another, verse and Quran, but this time in color tiles. And this refers to the previously mentioned golden age of Ottoman art, the 15th and especially 16th century Ottoman art, that perfected the Islamic art traditions
00:08:23 - and reached, what again, the 19th century Otto and very many others in the 19th century consider to be, the peak of Islamic art in the 16th century. So, you know, Hamdi is very intelligently positioning these colorful tile au tile bands signaling the peak of culture, cultural civilization in the ottoman, empire in the 16th century under the Qfi script.
00:08:55 - in a way turns into a time machine, right, that transverses the here and the now, the present thanks to oil painting, what the facade, this imaginary facade of the painting, the mosque that's on the imagines is doing, is actually taking us back to this deep time, this long duration of history that we as individuals with limited lifespans couldn't have imagined, couldn't have experienced.

Oil Painting: Bridging Past and Present

00:09:26 - It's, the power of the oil painting itself to synthesize the past, to integrate the past and make us see this long duration of history, that brings us to the present that underlies everything in the present. So with this information in mind, when you look at the lower part of the painting, and when you look at the human figures that are populating the present, what you see is
00:09:57 - of this long duration of history that has enabled them to exist in the present, right? They're going about their business. Nobody is looking up at the mosque and seeing all these layers of history that ham de has literally embedded almost like a chronological timetable onto the facade of this mosque, right? And you asked, how Hamdi uses photographic vernacular. he uses it in a very, very thoughtful,
00:10:28 - that Hamdi was following, very closely the developments in photography, not only street photography and studio photography, but also some cutting edge experimentations, with animal locomotion and photography that figures like, Edward, my Bridge were conducting at that time. When we look at the human figures there, we see that there's a photographic vernacular almost used, referred to,
00:10:58 - to in the way in which Hamdi depicts them. He uses light and shade, and even the poses that he captures, he clearly wants to refer to photography. I think Hamdi's incorporation of the photographic vernacular is a very intelligent approach to dealing with the role of painting in this period. And I'm going to explain why now, Hyundai's way of using the photographic vernacular in these little small human, beings at the bottom adds a sense of immediacy
00:11:35 - And there are some other photographic motives that HHI is using. For example, take a look at the pigeons that are cascading across the stone facade of the mosque or the ladies who are climbing the steps of the mosque. hamdi is clearly looking at experimental photographs, by figures like et mare and, Edward, my Bridge and Thomas Akins, who were engaged in experimenting
00:12:09 - and 1890s for these photographers, what was important was to use the photographic device as a tool that could surpass the human eye to capture details in nature that human eye couldn't capture, for example, mere. And my bridge developed different devices on different techniques to capture how an animal moved to divide the movement of the animal that would span, let's say, three seconds into its milliseconds in a way,

Osman Hamdi: Art, Photography, and Historical Context

00:12:43 - It would be too fast. So for these, pioneers of photographic experimentation, the camera was a superhuman device that could, penetrate the secrets of nature that the human eye couldn't see. So when we go back to phos, mosque facade, and when we look at these motives of pigeons cascading across the stone facet, or the women ascending the steps of the mosque,
00:13:13 - of being open or closed. we, it's very clear that Hamdi is very explicitly referencing, works by mare and my bridge and others. it's very clear that these motives, they declared their kinship, the photographic studies of human locomotion and animal locomotion produced by mare and others. However, I do not think that K's painting tries to imitate photography. I think s doing something very smart.
00:13:45 - of these available photographic vernaculars, so strict street photographer studio photography, but also these experimentations with photograph, in order to signal the here and the now that is constantly fleeting against the backdrop of deep and invisible structures of history, the possible venues that Osman harm de a person with resources like Osman Harm de had for expressing his thoughts
00:14:16 - he was a very important bureaucrat. So, you know, he had direct impact on what kind of policies were drafted. He was the founder of the School of Fine Arts. You know, he had direct impact over how fine arts was thought. He was the director of the Antiquities Museum, like he had direct impact over, how the ultimate empires whilst diverse layers of historical heritage, heritage were presented for, represented right? And he himself was an archeologist, so he actively went
00:14:47 - So why did he paint? Clearly there was something very specific about what the medium of oil painting could do that none of these other venues, could have addressed. So what is that specific thing that only oil painting could have done that is not to imitate photography, right? That clearly oil painting as a medium is offering something unique that, you know, NDI continued painting till the end of his life. That is a very interesting question.
00:15:19 - and the definition of the art of painting in modern times, I think again, when we look closely at the, at the mosque door, we see really a compelling response to the question of the role and the urgency of the art of painting in modern times. So again, we're talking about an remarked by rapid societal changes and shifting cultural paradigms. So artists, not only ham, but everywhere in the world, were grappling with questions of tradition, identity, innovation, and modernity.

The Unique Power of Oil Painting Unveiled

00:15:51 - or painting is navigating these complexities, by engaging with traditional ottoman themes, but also contemporary artist techniques. Now, what could painting do? I want to give you a very specific example from this painting to show you what painting could do that no other medium could do, not even photography could do, right? We said that photography can capture only the here and the now, even things that human eye cannot see, but only what is currently existing right now.
00:16:26 - This painting that's really open up our understanding of what this painting is trying to do. and one of these details really asserts a fundamental distinction between a painter and a camera, a painting and photography. There are multiple self-portraits of the artist embedded among these figures that we see populating in the background. For example, the beggar who is sitting cross-legged, in the foreground, his face is Osman face.
00:16:59 - yet another portrait of Osman. There is an old beck, an old warrior warrior seated to the left of the, mosque door behind them. His face is half in the shadows. That's again, Osman self portrait, and the imam, the very imam of the mosque in the lower right of the painting, his folding up his sleeves in preparations for taking ablutions. He also also carries the distinct facial features
00:17:28 - So we are talking about an impossible proliferation of the artist masquerades of multiple contemporary types. Once we see this detail, we, this guarantees that we read this painting, neither as photography mechanically capturing the truth of nature, nor as a simple oriental genre painting seemingly reporting observed reality ontologically.
00:18:00 - that it relies on the already existing presence of the photographed object. But painting as layered and conceptualized in NDIS at the mosque door insists on the oil paintings in the penance of any slavish imitation of the here and now by referencing photographic aesthetics in the painting, Hamdi's work actually deeply reflects on the role of the medium of painting in opposition
00:18:31 - and as far as I'm concerned, Hamdi proposes painting, oil painting as the quintessential medium that can make visible long durations of history underlying the present moment. So painting not only encompasses the superhuman eye of the camera that can capture the instant and divide it into smaller units like the cascades of the pigeon walking, the ladies walking up the steps with their parasols.

Art's Role: Mediating History and Identity

00:19:03 - duration of historical processes, otherwise invisible to the observing individual. So if photography is a device of analysis that can capture the here and now of nature, NDI seems to argue painting is the superior medium of synthesis that can show nature as history in its long processes revealing the truth about where we come from and who we are. and of course, I think it's very significant
00:19:33 - to signal the importance, the specificity of the artist himself as a mediator between us, the ordinary mortals who go about our daily lives, not being aware of this, you know, looming presence of grant history. So he's mediating between us and this grant, this deep, this overwhelming, all inspiring history that we are products of in a way.
00:20:03 - Let's take Monet, let's take Hamdi and let's think about, whether the questions that Hamdi are, are grappling with are specific to Hyundai, and how other artists of that period are answering these questions. So what is Hamdi's problem? Hamdi's problem is that we are all products right here and now. We are all products of long durations of history, long, long-term processes, long-term, biological processes, linguistic processes, civilizational processes, right?
00:20:38 - And within our human limitations, we cannot really talk about it, right? Science can look into it like geology can look into it, linguistics can look into it. So what's the role of the artist today? Are artists just inventing things? Then what's the value of invention? Right? So a lot of artists, not only in the Ottoman Empire, but in Europe, in the states, all around the world, are dealing with these questions of the role of art
00:21:09 - While science is understanding, developing insights into all sorts of complex processes that lead to today, the here and the now, all of us in all our complications, right? Like, what does painting do? Should we even paint? so Monnet has a completely different response than hamdi to that question. Now, first of all, to direct answer your question, what's the relationship between Mona and Hyundai?
00:21:39 - between the two artists as far as I know, but, you know, historical archive, something may come up. That being said, what I find interesting is, their respective contributions to, thinking about the abilities of the medium of oil painting or for valuable insights into diverse ranges of influences shaping the trajectory of modern art. So in comparing Mona and Harm de it's important to

Contrasting Artistic Paths: Hamdi and Monet

00:22:10 - and the divergent paths they took in their art. they are contemporaries, so it may be helpful to compare two works of them are made around the same time period. So on the one hand, let's keep Hamdi's at the mosque door. And now let's, take one specific example from Monnet just around the same time that Hamdi was finalizing at the mosque door. Monnet launched into a series of paintings depicting the Medieval Cathedral of Juan,
00:22:41 - around three years with fits and starts. And the series would ultimately, culminate in a major exhibition in May of 1895 at the gallery of the art dealer Duran in Paris. one example, national Gallery of Art in Washington, DC has a fantastic painting from that series one cathedral West facade painted around 1894. Now, Monet in this painting
00:23:14 - or the medium of oil paint to capture the essence of a single moment, almost sculpting the surface of his painting with layers of paint. Now, when I say he's using the male of medium of oil painting to capture of the essence of a single moment, let's think about the reality of oil painting. It's not like a snapshot that you can take with the camera, right? Oil painting, even if it looks like a moment,
00:23:48 - So the painting, Mona's painting may look like it shows us really a split second that hits the eye, right of the facade of the one cathedral when the sun is sitting from a particular angle. But Monnet actually spends several months painting this painting, right? So when this painting is built on this fiction of an instant, but the reality of the creation of the painting actually based on long duration, right? So, but for Monet, clearly what is very urgent
00:24:23 - of the artist's personal subjective experience of seeing how those sunlight hit the surface of the one cathedral in one specific instant, right? And it's very clear that Monet is rejecting any certainty about capturing historical processes beyond the fleeting present. Clearly, Monnet doesn't believe that the painting can not only capture the here and the now,
00:24:54 - Like if as an artist I cannot witness those long-term processes, how can I make a painting that is truthful, right? So that's Mona's approach. Like for him, truthful painting can show only what he knows to be a fact, and the only thing he knows to be a fact is his immediate sensory experience, right? so Monet is very, very pessimistic

Painting as a Tool for Historical Understanding

00:25:28 - So now when we look at, what HHI is doing at the mosque door, Hyundai is clearly not seeing painting as a passive medium, but as an active tool that is capable of revealing long-term processes to contemporary viewers. his optimism lay in the belief that oil painting had the power to ate truths about our origins and identities almost on par with science, right?
00:25:58 - and active role in synthesizing historical truths and present this canvas to, you know, clueless individual viewers. And suddenly they experience, they have a sense and inner understanding, a deeper understanding of where they are in relationship to the history of everything. So while Mona focuses on the transient nature of the present moment, Hamdi embraces oil painting
00:26:38 - and ontological truths. There are different perspectives reflect the multiplicity of art approaches artists took in grappling with the limits and purpose of oil painting at the end of the 19th century.

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