4. 4 Portable Images of Asian Architecture in Europe
4.4.1 Illustrations
There is an abundance of travel accounts by European travellers to the Ottoman world in the eighteenth century, which described the architecture of the Ottoman Empire, though the observation and inclusion of descriptions of buildings that incorporated European elements seem to have been written more frequently in the later eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, though they were not the focus of the studies.56 Many travelogues written in the seventeenth century were still important sources of information, such as Tavernier, in 1677. Stanislaus Lesczynski (patron of the Tréfle, 1737, and Bâtiment a La Turque, 1737, at Lunéville) had many travel books in his library, which included the text by Tournefort, as well as other historical and cultural
54 However in the twelfth century, Muslim artisans were engaged in the court of the Norman King William II at Palermo. There are also many cases of Mudejar artisans continuing to work in Christian Spain.
55 Though many new illustrations were more accurate than in previous centuries.
56 Some European travel accounts that illustrate and describe the architecture of Istanbul and its surrounds are listed by Hamadeh. See Hamadeh, “Ottoman Expressions of Early Modernity and the “Inevitable Question of Westernization”, 47, 49, footnotes 4, 29, 33.
accounts of the Ottoman Empire.57 Dr Alexander Russell also consulted many earlier travel texts before his departure to Aleppo.58 Views of the city of Aleppo, as well as the interior of Aleppo’s houses were illustrated by Alexander Russell in 1794 in The Natural History of Aleppo (see Chapter 6).
Thus it was the illustrations in European travellers’ accounts (Fig 4.7), or the sketches made by artists sent to record the monuments, that provided the most information for European architects. These representations of Islamic cities in the Ottoman Empire, and individual buildings (especially in the case of India) as illustrated in Fig 4.7 are detailed, as they were drawn in-situ. However, picturesque principles often embellished the final painting in the use of light and shade, the scale of the building, the omission of details in the surroundings, and the use of lighting to highlight or cast into shadow areas of the painting or drawing (for example Antioch and the Orontes by Parsons, 1770 and Cornelius Le Bruyn’s view of Persepolis, 1737, (Fig 4.7).
It could be argued that there is no guarantee of verisimilitude in a drawing, however, a comparison between the photograph of Persepolis in 2011 (Fig 4.8.a) and Le Bruyn’s drawing (Fig 4.8.b) shows the overall accuracy of his sketch. These travel accounts in the later seventeenth and eighteenth century tended to concentrate on specific sites, whether views of whole cities or iconic buildings.59 The details of the Daniell’s views, for example the sketch of building details, and the Jami’Masjid at Delhi (Fig 4.7), provided more accurate information on Indian architecture, than that of earlier European artists in the Ottoman Empire, enabling more accurate exchanges with Indian architecture in the latter part of the eighteenth century in English architecture. Hodges, the other prominent English artist in India, was more affected by picturesque principles than the Daniells
57 Avcioğlu, Peripatetics of Style, Travel Literature and the Political Appropriation of Turkish Architecture in Britain 1737-1862 (Phd diss., University of Cambridge in the Department of History of Art, 1996), 684.
For example the 1741 account by Joseph Pitton De Tournefort, A Voyage into the Levant.
58 See Russell, The Natural History of Aleppo, 426, 424, 419, 417, 428, 445, 444, 422, 396, 357, 392, 412, 380, 372.
59 For example, in Istanbul, Aya Sophia, was often a focal point for European descriptions and interest, as well as general view of the city and Topkapi. This was the case with the illustrations by Cornelius Loos sketched in 1710-11, for Charles XII of Sweden (see title page image of this thesis as well as Fig 5.0).
Avcioğlu, Peripatetics of Style, Travel Literature and the Political Appropriation of Turkish Architecture in Britain 1737-1862, 672, 673.
brothers, for example his drawing of the Atala Mosque (Fig 4.7), has a softer focus than the Daniells’ image. However, even his depiction of the Atala Mosque in Jaunpur (Fig 4.8.d) in 1786, when compared with a nineteenth century photograph of this Mosque (Fig 4.8.e), has much accuracy in its representation.
In contrast, Niebuhr’s drawings of Taaes in Yemen show an overview of this town in relationship to its landscape (Fig 4.7.d). Niebuhr was part of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix (Yemen) in the 1770s. On his return journey to Copenhagen, he traversed the desert route from Basra to Aleppo. Thus, over the course of his journey, he describes the architecture and cities of Taaes, Basra, Najaf, Jerusalem and Aleppo. Some of his illustrations included a view of the city of Jerusalem (Fig 4.7.h), and ‘Mesched Ali’ in Iraq. Niebuhr presented his visual representations of the cities using a simple line technique that gave an accurate representation of the details of the cities and monuments he saw, and as an untrained artist his drawings were the least affected by picturesque principles. He also made a special detour on his return journey to see Persepolis (Fig 4.8.a) in Persia, and while there he made detailed drawings of the site (Fig 4.8.c) and some of the inscriptions. European texts, such as these, provided illustrations of Asian- Islamic architecture, and these examples illustrate the way these buildings and gardens were presented to their European audiences.
In addition to Abbott and Niebuhr, East India Company employees such as Beawes, Plaisted, Carmichael, Gaylard Roberts and Eliot, traversed the desert route to India and left written and illustrative records about the cities and architecture they passed on the way, especially the major towns of Basra, Najaf and Aleppo. The Dome of the Rock and the Church of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as well as the pyramids of Egypt, were illustrated by Richard Pococke in A Description of the East. He travelled extensively in the Ottoman Empire from 1743-45. He included important architectural plans and illustrations in his accounts (Fig 4.7.g). This facilitated the European-Islamic exchange in the eighteenth century, and the increased accuracy of the engravings and aquatints enabled greater fidelity to the original models.
The way these buildings, cities and gardens were portrayed in these illustrations did have an effect on the design of the building that used these visual representations for inspiration.60 However, there is no illustration of the interior of the Dome of the Rock, only a rough plan of the building. This is because Pococke, as a Christian, would not have been allowed inside.
Another illustrative medium is wallpaper. Daniells’ and Hodges’ Indian illustrations were reproduced on a panoramic French wallpaper by Jean Zuber (designed by Mongin) in 1812, titled L’Indoustan.61 The scenery included many details of Indian buildings. In 1815 the creation of another wallpaper, this time designed by Dufour, also included details from Oriental Scenery, titled Paysage Indien or Vues de l’Inde. He also presented many architectural details of the temples, forts and other monuments.62 Thus images of Indian buildings could be found on the walls in stately homes in England and France, providing further proof of the mobility of the architectural image. One example is Laxton Hall in Northhamptonshire where remnants of Dufour’s wallpaper can still be seen on the walls.63 This had parallels to the creation of painted scenic views of architectural images, landscapes and gardens on the walls of the palaces, pavilions, mosques and houses in and around Istanbul, as well as other areas of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (see Chapter 5).
60 See Avcioğlu, Peripatetics of Style, Travel Literature and the Political Appropriation of Turkish Architecture in Britain 1737-1862.
61 Archer, Early Views of India, 228, 229.
62 Archer, Early Views of India, 228, 229.
63 Archer, Early Views of India, 229.
a b c 4.7.a Thomas Daniell’s sketches of building details, 4.7.b the Jami’Masjid at Delhi, T&W Daniell,
1795-1808, and 4.7.c the Atala Mosque, Hodges.
d e
f
Fig 4.7.d Niebuhr’s sketch of the town of Taaes, Yemen, 1763. Fig 4.7.e Antioch and the River Orontes, by Parsons, 1770. Fig 4.7.f Cornelius Le Bruyn, view of Persepolis, 1737.
g h
Fig 4.7.g Pococke’s plan and view of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Fig 4.7.h Niebuhr’s drawing of Jerusalem in 1766.
Fig 4.7.a-h Examples of architectural illustrations of Islamic West and South Asia in eighteenth century European traveller’s accounts.
a b
Fig 4.8.a A photograph of the pillars of Persepolis in 2011 compared to Fig 4.8.b Le Bruyn’s drawing of the site, shows the accuracies of his 1737 depiction.
c
Fig 4.8.c Niebuhr’s drawing of Persepolis, also shows his intentions to depict the site accurately.
d e
Fig 4.8.d The Atala Mosque at Jaunpur as depicted by William Hodges in 1786, compared to Fig 4.8.e A nineteenth century photograph of the Mosque in the India Office Library, shows much of Hodge’s details are correct. The Atala Mosque, completed in 1408, was built on the site of an older Hindu temple dedicated
to Atala Devi.