Ottoman Miniatures

Ottoman Miniature

Growing out of the Persian miniature tradition was the Ottoman miniature tradition.  It also featured bright or contrasting colors.  Though Ottoman miniatures were sometimes displayed in albums, the tradition of miniature painting was strongly linked to poetry, storytelling and calligraphy, so that miniature painting was one part of an overall work.

Matrakci Nasuh was a famous miniature painter who created a new painting genre called topographic painting. Anticipating Picasso by quite some time, topographic painting combined figures observed from different viewpoints in one work.  This lead to a somewhat abstract quality to the works.

With the advent of the printing press, the call for hand-created books and their miniatures declined.  Also, Ottoman painting styles became more and more westernized as time went by.  In the 1930s, it was classified as a decorative traditional art by the new Turkish Republic and new artists have emerged with the revival of training.