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IG_245: Pl. 34. Yechil-Turbey, tombeau du sultan Mohammed 1er . Vitrail de la partie supérieure.
(IG_Parvillee_1874_IG_245)

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Title

Yechil-Turbey, tombeau du sultan Mohammed 1er . Vitrail de la partie supérieure.

Type of Object
Artist / Producer
Dating
1874

Iconography

Description

Fig. 34 in Léon Parvillée, Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle, Paris: A. Morel et Cie, 1874. A black and white print showing a pointed-arch stucco and glass window, depicting the stucco grille, not the pieces of glass. The stucco lattice is drawn in great detail, showing the oblique carving and the different levels of the surface. Certain tendrils, palmettes, and split palmettes have a broader stucco profile, while the leaves and flowers within these tendrils are formed by a thinner one. In addition, thinner stucco pieces within the tendril outlines create a discreet division into small sections. They were not placed there for aesthetic reasons. In fact, they made it possible to fix on the back pieces of glass so small that they did not need to be cut in the curved shape of the tendril. The effect of a lower and a higher level produces a distinction between the background and the main ornament. The latter is formed by two symmetrical tendrils originating from an abstract shape in the lower part of the window. From there, two symmetrical scrolls with split palmettes grow downwards to form a curve at the bottom and then grow upwards; when they reach the central axis, they form a cluster of palmettes. From the same abstract shape, two symmetrical scrolls with large half-palmettes grow upwards. They are shaped in curves that meet on the central axis, only to deviate and come together again after smaller curves. They terminate in palmettes, which in turn form the origin of two symmetrical tendrils falling downwards on each outer side.
The central section is surrounded by a band with repeated simple perforations in the stucco, which interestingly are not carved at an angle. The window is held in a frame with slightly wavy parallel lines indicating that it was made of wood.

Iconclass Code
25G41 · flowers
48A98312 · tendrils ~ ornament
48AA983112 · palmette ~ ornament - AA - stylized
Iconclass Keywords

Technique / State

History

Research

This window is shown detached from its architectural context, the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) in Bursa, which was built after 1421. There, it was installed in the upper part (‘partie supérieure’), meaning the recessed octagonal drum. The stucco and glass window is depicted without any trace of damage. In neither the caption nor the text there is information as to whether the image shows a window that survived the severe earthquake of 1855 in situ, or a window created during the restoration works.

In his publication Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle, Parvillée (1874, pp. 14–15) mentions that in 1862 the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) was so ruined that demolition was even considered. In his chapter on the Yeşil Cami (Green Mosque) in the 1873 publication Die Ottomanische Baukunst / L’Architecture ottomane / Uṣūl-i Miʿmāriyye-i ʿUsmaniyye, Marie de Launay (1873, p. 25) specifies that the stucco and glass windows of the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) had been restored under Ahmed Vefik Efendi, who commissioned the restoration works in Bursa from Parvillée (Parvillée, 1874, p. 4). In Parvillée’s publication (1874, p. 1), the window is presented as a creation of early Ottoman times, as he clearly states that all the works documented in his book stem from the period from the 14th to the 17th centuries. But it is unlikely that a fragile window survived the passing of time and earthquakes in this perfectly preserved state. It remains an open question therefore whether the window depicted is a creation of contemporary craftsmen, perhaps based on a design by Parvillée, or the outcome of a restoration based on surviving historical fragments.
Typologically, this window is very similar to the superior window of the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) depicted by Parvillée (IG_245). Its typology does not correspond to examples in Western collections, which are mostly of Egyptian or Tunisian provenance, and for the larger part were not made for mosques. Their stucco work tends to be less delicate and detailed. Mostly, they show geometrical patterns, or individual motifs, like flowers in a vase, rather than a surface-filling floral ornament of intertwined tendrils and palmettes.
A similar typology, with a tendril with palmettes and split palmettes growing upwards and forming symmetrical curves, can be found in a window of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, depicted by Pietro Montani in Launay’s Die Ottomanische Baukunst / L’Architecture ottomane / Uṣūl-i Miʿmāriyye-i ʿUsmaniyye of 1873 (IG_234).

Dating
1874
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Parvillée, L. (1874). Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle. A. Morel et Cie.

Launay, M. de (1873). Die Ottomanische Baukunst / L’Architecture ottomane / Uṣūl-i Miʿmāriyye-i ʿUsmaniyye. Imprimerie et lithographie centrales.

Exhibitions

18.5.2024–1.9.2024: Luminosité de l’Orient, Vitromusée Romont

Image Information

Name of Image
IG_Parvillee_1874_IG_245

Inventory

Reference Number
IG_245
Author and Date of Entry
Franziska Niemand 2024

Linked Objects and Images

Linked Objects
Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle