ITALIAN BAROQUE AND ITS EFFECTS ON OTTOMAN BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

Günhan Danışman Müge İmga / Arch 2012 30 May 2008 ITALIAN BAROQUE AND ITS EFFECTS ON OTTOMAN BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE In this article I want to talk about the differences and the similarities between Italian Baroque Architecture and Ottoman Baroque Architecture in the Architectural History. First of all, I want to start with development of Baroque Architecture. Baroque Architecture started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. The word baroque derives probably from the ancient Portuguese noun "barroco" which is a pearl that is not round but of unpredictable and elaborate shape. Hence, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is "elaborate", with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Baroque style used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, richness, and grandeur in sculpture, painting. Baroque Style is dramatic and theatrical, full of geometrical shapes and confusing spatial domains. (Wikipedia Ecyclopedia, p.6). During this period new social and political systems resulted in the concentration of power in the hands of individuals with absolute authority. Architecture affirmed this -through the structures and decorative programs of palaces, churches, public and government buildings, scientific and commercial buildings, and military installations. Magnificent churches, fountains, and palaces attested to the renewed strength of the popes in Rome, while architects also gave new forms to churches for the Protestant and Russian Orthodox liturgies. Baroque Architects had been schooled in the classical Renaissance Tradition, emphasizing symmetry and harmonious proportions, but their designs revealed a new sense of dynamism and grandeur. Renaissance Architects had sought to engage the intellect, with their focus on divine sources of geometry, while their successors aimed to overwhelm the senses and emotions (Architecture in Europe, exhibitions/2000). In Baroque Architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, oval windows, twisted columns, domes, light-and-shade (chiaroscuro), 'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void. Important features include long, narrow naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms, dramatic use of light, uniform lighting by means of several windows, opulent use of ornaments, plaster or stucco, marble, large scale ceiling frescoes, the external façade is often characterized by a dramatic central projection. The interior is often no more than a shell for painting and sculpture, illusory effects like trompe l’oeil and blending of painting and architecture. In interiors, Baroque Movement around and through a void informed monumental staircases that had no parallel in previous architecture. The other Baroque Innovation in worldly interiors was the state apartment, a processional sequence of increasingly rich interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stairs followed by a state apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions. The religion determined many aspects of baroque. The Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter-Reformation a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) is usually given as the beginning of the Counter Reformation. The Baroque played into the demand for an architecture that was on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and, on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church. The new style manifested itself in particular in the context of new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits, which aimed to improve popular piety. Political situations influenced architecture. Colonialisms required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the first to move in this direction. Colonialism brought in huge amounts of wealth not only in the silver that was extracted from the mines in Bolivia, Mexico and elsewhere, but also in the resultant trade in commodities, such as sugar and tobacco, etc. The need to control trade routes, monopolies and, of course, slavery, controlled primarily by the French during the seventeenth century, created an almost endless cycle of wars between the colonial powers: The French Religious Wars, the Thirty Years' War (1618 and 1648), Franco-Spanish War (1653), The Dutch War (1672–1678) and so on. The initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards lead them into bankruptcy in the sixteenth century (1557 and 1560), recovering only slowly in the following century. (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, p.3). At the same, Italian Baroque Architecture style characterized by expressive, flamboyant, and dynamic design. In Italy, the Baroque style is reflected in opulent and dramatic churches with irregular shapes and extravagant ornamentation. To inspire its viewers, the style used elaborate effects to appeal directly to the emotions. Many masterpieces of the baroque emerged in churches and palaces in Rome, but the style soon spreads throughout Europe, changing in character as it did so. The baroque style in architecture emerged as a revolt against the rigid conventions of Italian Renaissance classicism. Instead of the straight lines of classicism, curved and broken lines appeared. Decoration became more important and elaborate, and spaces became more complex, their impact highlighted by the dramatic use of light and shade. Designs were often large-scale, as in Bernini's piazza for St Peter's in Rome. (http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Baroque+Art+and+Architecture) In the heart of Rome, in the middle of the head office of Papal State, San Pietro square is maybe the most famous square in the world. Planned in the middle of 1600 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini it is one of the world masterpiece of Baroque architecture. An imposing colonnade (four lines of 284 columns, 88 pillars and 140 statues of Saints) surrounds the square and traces his shape. The central colonnade accompanies the spectator’s sight to the entrance of San Pietro Basilica, while the lateral columns seem to symbolize the embrace of the church to his people. Such a structure stands out the attitude of Baroque art, beloved to Bernini, to create the optical and moving effects that give the impression of walking along the colonnade. In the front of San Pietro basilica, in the middle of the square, there is an Egyptian obelisk, forty meters high, dating back to the XIII century A.D. Brought to Rome in the I century the obelisk was collocated in San Pietro square in 1985 at Papa Sisto V’s will according to the Roman Baroque tradition. Also I want to give an example about the Italian Baroque Architecture by using St.Peter’s Basilica The most magnificent basilica on Earth is a late Renaissance/early baroque masterpiece of architecture and decoration. The Basilica of Saint Peter (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri), officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St. Peter's Basilica, is located within the Vatican City in Rome. It occupies a "unique position" as one of the holiest sites and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".It is thanks to Peter ,the first Apostle and the first pope and leader of the Church that the most important basilica in the Christian world, the St. Peter's Basilica, was built in Rome. Peter was given his name by Jesus because he was destined to be the foundation "stone" (in Italian "Pietra") on which the church would be built. St. Peter's is famous as a place of pilgrimage, for its liturgical functions and for its historical associations. It is associated with the papacy, with the Counter-reformation and with numerous artists, most significantly Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age. Contrary to popular misconception, Saint Peter's is not a cathedral, as it is not the seat of a bishop. It is properly termed a basilica. The Baroque style first heralded in the massive forms and the gigantic excelsior of the dome of Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s. VERONICA Carlo Maderna (1556- 1629), was an Italian architect, whose work prefigured the Baroque style of the 17th century. He was active during the transition from High Renaissance to Early Baroque.  He also completed the unfinished façade (1614) of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Between 1606 and 1612 he built the nave extension and façade of the church, which Donato Bramante had begun approximately 100 years earlier. (http://arthistory.heindorffhus.dk/frame-ArchitectureCarloMaderno.html) The colossal Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep, frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive elliptical area which precedes it. The ellipse's long axis, parallel to the basilica's façade, creates a pause in the sequence of forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque monumental approach. The colonnades define the piazza. The elliptical center of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space, with the Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an assortment of Vatican structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above. Ber nini created his first masterpiece of Baroque decoration, the bronze canopy under Michelangelo’s dome in the centre of St. Peter’s, a huge monument nearly 100 feet high, with its four gigantic twisted columns the very symbol of the changed age, of a grandeur without restraint, a wild extravagance, and luxury of detail that would have been distasteful to Michelangelo. Upon conclusion of this grand work, the construction of the city was stopped, but the miraculous balance between ancient ruins and the Baroque scenes of papal Rome is so great that it has fascinated and enraptured great travellers such as Byron, Goethe, Stendhal... Secondly I would like to continue with Ottoman Baroque Architecture. Ahmed’s reign is also known as the Tulip Period. The popularity of this flower is reflected in a new style of floral decoration that replaced the saz style of ornament with serrated leaves and cloud bands that had characterized Ottoman art for many years, and is found in textiles, illumination, and architectural ornament. The architecture of this period is exemplified in the monumental fountain constructed by Ahmed III outside the gate to the Topkapi Palace. Ambassadors dispatched to Paris and Vienna sparked further changes with their descriptions of the Baroque architecture of Versailles and Fontainebleau, but many of the Baroque-inspired palaces built during Ahmed’s reign were destroyed in the revolt that forced him to abdicate in 1730. The earliest building to survive is the Nur-u Osmaniye Mosque (1748–55), begun by Mahmud I and finished by Osman III. Its flamboyant decoration, ornate moldings, and vegetal carvings are the hallmark of the style that continued into the nineteenth century. (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/otto_2/hd_otto_2.html) Istanbul, once the center of the Ottoman Empire, hosts many different varieties of Baroque architecture. The most famous of these are probably the Nuruosmaniye Mosque. Also I want to give an example Ottoman Baroque Architecture by using Nuruosmaniye Complex. The mosque is in Nuruosmaniye neighborhood near Eminonu, just next to the Grand Bazaar, to the northwest of the Cemberlitas column (http://www.greatistanbul.com/index.html). It is located to the east of the covered bazaar and was built to replace the Mascid of Fatma Hatun, which burnt in a fire. In style, the complex is distinguished from its precedents with its adoption of baroque design elements and embodies the westernizing vision of Mahmud I. While there is little known about its architect, Simeon Kalfa, its construction is documented in detail by construction manager Ahmed Efendi in a booklet entitled "Tarih-i Cami-i Serif-i Nur-i Osmani". The name Nuruosmaniye, or the Light of Osman, is thought to refer to Osman III and to a verse from the Sura of Al-Nur, "God is the light of the heavens and the earth", which is inscribed inside the dome. The complex consists of a mosque (cami), madrasa (medrese), soup-kitchen (imaret), tomb (türbe), library (kütüphane) and water fountain or sabil (sebil), enclosed in an irreqular walled-in precinct, and a han and some stores (dükkan) built in the vicinity. The precinct is entered from two gates to the east and west. The western gate, called Carsikapisi or bazaar gate, opens into the covered bazaar with the sabil adjoining it. The mosque, oriented along the northwest-southeast axis, occupies the northwest corner of the precinct, which is raised above street level on a tall basement. Beside it, at the northeast corner, are the library and the tomb. The madrasa and the soup kitchen are housed in a single structure that projects beyond the southern precinct wall. The accessory buildings are aligned loosely with the cardinal axis. The mosque consists of a single domed prayer hall, preceded by a courtyard of comparable size to the northwest. The courtyard is entered through a main portal to the northwest and two side portals. It has a unique semi-elliptical shape created with the use of wedge-segments placed between nine domed bays; it is also distinctive with the omission of an ablution fountain. Windows placed at two levels provide views outside. There is no ablution fountain. The five-bay mosque portico completes the courtyard arcade and leads into the prayer hall through a central portal. The prayer hall is square with a semi-circular mihrab apse and is crowned with a large dome 25 meters in diameter and raised to a height of 43.50 meters on four monumental arches. The interior space is activated by wide galleries that surround it on three sides. There are no aisles; the space below the galleries is an exterior arcade and is accessed through two side doors with cascading steps. At three different places -- the entrance and the two corners flanking the qibla wall -- the galleries are widened to form balconies that project into the prayer hall carried on columns. The corner balconies are deepened further with the inclusion of arcade space; the one to the east is the sultan's lodge and has gilted latticework between its columns. It is accessed primarily by a ramp outside the mosque that allowed the sultan to ascend to his quarters on his horse. The tympana of the grand arches, equal in height to the galleries, are braced with smaller concentric arches that help strengthen the structure. At the qibla wall, the small arch is joined with the semi-dome that covers the mihrab apse. Sixteen windows in each tympanum light up the interior, in addition to the numerous casement windows at the ground and gallery levels. There are twenty-eight more windows at the base of the dome. With the exception of the casements, windows are made of interlacing pieces of colored and plain glass. The interior of the mosque is covered with gray marble panels up to the galleries where a thick structural cornice, inscribed with the Sura of Al-Fath, adorns and braces the structure. Below the gallery, calligraphic medallions crown each casement window. The baroque influence is conveyed through the extensive use of sculptural elements such as pilasters and cornices, and baroque motifs, such as garlands, finials and scallops. Going beyond mere imitation, the Nuruosmaniye mosque achieves one of the finest instances of Ottoman baroque, a unique synthesis between classical Ottoman and contemporary western styles that is epitomized in the scallop muqarnas domes crowning its portals. On the exterior, the silhouette of the mosque is marked by the tall dome and domed arches rising dramatically above the courtyard walls amidst the low-lying market neighborhood. The curved outlines of the baroque buttresses that anchor the dome at its corners and the thick cornice that crowns the grand arches, dominate the architectural expression. The two minarets, attached at either end of the mosque portico, have fluted shafts with two balconies and stone caps. The mosque is primarily constructed of cut stone. The madrasa is built on a traditional plan, and has twenty domed rooms and a large classroom (dersane) enveloping an arcaded courtyard. The soup-kitchen adjoins it to the west and is about half the size of the madrasa. Entered through a domed entryway to the north, the soup-kitchen is organized around an inner courtyard that gives access to the kitchens to the south and a dining room to the west, with the madrasa wall bounding it to the east. The library is a single-story building set on a high platform accessed by two sets of stairs located to the west that lead into separate entryways. An Arabic inscription above the entrance states: "Demand science, from the cradle to the grave." It has a cross-plan with widely rounded corners and consists of an elliptical reading room enveloped by an arcade made of fourteen columns. An additional storage room projects between the two staircases to the west; there is also a full basement. The reading room is covered by a dome flanked by two semi-domes, and the arcade spaces have cross vaults. Thirty windows, placed at two levels, illuminate the interior. The bulbous footprint of the library is enhanced on the exterior with the play of pilasters and moldings. Opened in 1755 with eighteen employees, the Nuruosmaniye Library is a branch of the Süleymaniye Library today and contains personal collections of Mahmud I and Osman III with a total of 7600 volumes of which 5052 are manuscripts. The tomb is located slightly to the south of the library and was originally intended for Mahmud I, who is buried in the Tomb of Valide Turhan Sultan. Sehsuvar Valide Sultan, the mother of Osman III, was buried here in 1756. The tomb is a single domed room, preceded by a three-bay domed portico to the west. Its exterior appearance is marked by the curved outline of the portico and the large weight turrets that flank the dome at its four corners. The construction of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque was started by Sultan Mahmud I in 1748 and completed by Sultan Osman III in 1755. It's a typical Baroque and Rococo style mosque which was a very popular architecture of 1700's within the Ottoman Empire. Its flamboyant decoration, ornate moldings, and vegetal carvings are the hallmark of the style that continued into the nineteenth century. an "eastern" form a baroque expression and probably the most "baroque" architectural structure in Islamic architecture. The arabesque and Ottoman flavour gives it its unique atmosphere, which also distinguishes it from the later "collonial" baroque styles, largely used in the Middle East, especially Lebanon. The mosque was built on one of the seven hills of Istanbul by a Greek minority architect named Simeon Kalfa and Mustafa Aga. It was completed by Osman III in 1755, this is the first Baroque Ottoman Mosque. Its prayer hall follows the rigid square, domed plan but its courtyard curves in a horseshoe form. The mosque has a semi-circular courtyard with no fountain for the ablutions but only taps today. There are two minarets each having two balconies. It has a single dome and no column within the prayer hall but raised on four large arches, having a diameter of 25 meters (82 feet) and the height of 43 meters (141 feet). There are many ornaments on its main walls, stone crescent on the minaret tops, stone work of the niche (Mihrab) and the pulpit (Minbar). On the east corner of the prayer hall there is the sultan's lodge with latticework between its columns, accessed by a ramp outside the mosque. The existence of many windows provide lots of light but also justifying the name of the mosque: Nuruosmaniye means "The Light of Osman". It also gave its name to the neighborhood. The Nuruosmaniye Complex has a manuscript library as well with thousands of volumes containing also collections belonging to the sultans. This section is closed to the public except researchers with special permission. In the complex, there is also a medresse and a soup kitchen to the north, a mausoleum where Sultan Osman III's mother (Sehsuvar Valide Sultan) is buried, and a public fountain. In connection with the European countries Ottoman modernisation has its roots in the Tulip Age during the reign of Ahmed III. Various visitors and envoys were sent to European cities, especially to Paris, to experince the contemporary European customs and life. The decorative elements of the European Baroque and Rococo influenced the religious Ottoman architecture. The most important examples of the Ottoman Baroque are the Nuruosmaniye Mosque (1748-1755) Laleli Complex (1759-1763) and Küçük Efendi Complex (1825) in İstanbul. The Nuruosmaniye Mosque around the Covered Bazaar was built according to a simple scheme and it had a single dome. However the influence of the Baroque shows itself in the semi-ovel courtyard instead of the rectangular examples of the classic Ottoman mosques. Laleli complex built by Mehmed Tahir Aga presents a combinations of baroque with traditional decorative elements(http://steppes.proboards23.com/index.cgi?board=board13&action=display&thread=611) . According to Stephen Lewis,during the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, patrons, builders and craftsmen in the Ottoman Empire turned to the European Baroque for inspiration. As Ottoman diplomatic missions to Europe returned home with fresh impressions of European styles, and as the first in a centuries-long progression of European architects settled in Istanbul, Ottoman architecture absorbed into it own rich vocabulary elements of the European Baroque. Baroque motifs made their first tentative appearance in Ottoman stonework and interior ornamentation.  Soon, fountains, kiosks, and mausoleums incorporated characteristically-baroque undulating, multi-dimensional surfaces and floral-inspired carvings. Eventually, even the traditional dome-on-cube form of the Ottoman mosque was influenced by the baroque, and mosques arose with elongated lattice-like walls, soaring domes, and delicately-thin minarets - buildings seemingly on the verge of reaching skyward. The eighteenth century was a turning-point in the balance of power between the Ottomans and the empires of Europe.  Within the Ottoman Empire, the Baroque came to be seen as a symbol of the rising economic, military and technical achievements of the west.  This was not lost on up-and-coming Ottoman provincial leaders seeking to express their achievements and power. ( http://www.bubkes.org/2007/01/30) The highly ornamented Baroque fountain at the entrance of the mosque. The mosque has been severly criticized and the buildimg of the complex ignored until very recently, but it is a work of considerable interest and by an architect with inventive and assimlative powers. the center of the Ottoman Empire, hosts many different varieties of Baroque architecture In conclusion, Baroque Architecture from Italy to Turkey spreads like other countries, foreign architects were influnced by Italian Baroque Architecture. In Islamic Architecture, they used Baroque elements. Istanbul, once. The most famous of these are probably the Nuruosmaniye Mosque which was an "eastern" form a baroque expression and probably the most "baroque" architectural structure in Islamic architecture. The arabesque and Ottoman flavour gives it its unique atmosphere, which also distinguishes it from the later "collonial" baroque styles, largely used in the Middle East. 11