FRONTLINESPROFILE

1

1Nurhan Atasoy (centre)

pictured in 1961 sharing a

joke with Mimi Lukens

(left), Filiz Cagman (former

Director of the Topkapı

Saray Museum, right)

and Louise Mackie (now

Curator of Textiles and

Islamic Art at the

Cleveland Museum of Art,

far right)

2A spread from the first

edition (2002) of Nurhan

Atasoy’s A Garden for the

Sultan, of which a third

edition is due to be

published in 2007

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FRONTLINESPROFILE

NURHAN ATASOY PORTRAITINMINIATURE

CHRIS MARTENS

For anyone involved in Ottoman art, Nurhan Atasoy’s name and scholarly reputation are a familiar and reassuringreference point. Our author, a New York-based independent researcher, talks to Professor Atasoy and is infected by her wit, energy and enthusiasm.

I FIRST MET NURHAN ATASOY in the summer of 2005 at the Istanbul offices of Hamzagil, a commercial textile producer in Turkey. All modern scholars

writing about the arts of Ottoman Turkey cite Professor Atasoy’s work, so I was curious what the encounter would reveal. Instead of the austere scholar I anticipated, there appeared an earth mother of robust proportions, with short, white wavy hair, sparkling eyes, and an energetic gait. As guest curator for the exhibition ‘Style and Status: Imperial Robes from Ottoman Turkey’, due to open that October at the Sackler Gallery in Washington DC, she had come to choose Ottoman fabric designs for jackets and T-shirts to be sold in the Smithsonian shop. Her readiness to deal with even this small detail of the project is typical of her generosity of spirit. In 1983, Atasoy was awarded the medal Pro Meritoby the Council of Europe for her role as curator-in-chief of the twelve-part ‘Anatolian Civilizations’ exhibition, a vast enterprise under the aegis of the Council, which included11,640

pieces from museums in Turkey and abroad. Widely publicised in Europe, it was considered by many to be a turning point in the cultural life of Turkey. In 2006, recognised for her extraordinary contributions in the field of art history, Nurhan Hanım received Turkey’' s highest academic honour, the designation ‘State Scholar’ from the Ministry of Culture. Her publications range in topics seemingly as diverse as miniature painting, tents, gardens, ceramics, textiles, and architecture. She is best known, however, for using Turkish miniature paintings as historical documents that illuminate life in the court of the Ottoman Empire. The topic of her PhD thesis was the Surname(Book of Festivals) of Murad III, commemorating the circumcision of Crown Prince Mehmet in 1582. This manuscript of text and miniature paintings depicts festivities lasting 52 days and nights, and includes a procession of the Istanbul guilds. At the same time she was studying 16th century miniatures of Istanbul by Matrakçi Nasuh. Matrakçi had worked in the court atelier of Sultan Süleyman and had joined his military campaigns to what are now Iran and Iraq, making

topographical drawings of all Ottomanencampments along the way. He wrote a book on the campaigns, which included his paintings and an accompanying text, naming all important ruins and buildings, their locations, dimensions, and even the weather conditions at the time. When Atasoy studied the details of Matrakci’' sdrawings of the Topkapı◊ Palace, her interest gave way to confusion. It was difficult to comprehend the relationship between the drawings and the actual structure of the palace. But soon she began to understand the manner in which he depicted architectural elements. “" If something in the back of the building was of interest to him, he would place it in the front of the composition,”" she explained. “"In other words, he made his own order.”" When working on the Surnameshe was criticised by Arif Mansel, Professor of Classical Archaeology, for not paying enough attention to the Ibrahim Pasha palace depicted in the manuscript, which inspired her to study the building more closely and which led to her writing an article from her research. When later the palace was undergoing restoration, armed with her

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