Illumination

1- Turkish Art of Illumination

The word “tezhib” comes from the Arabic root “zeheb” which means “gold”.  We can describe the Islamic art of illumination as the art of decorating books and calligraphic boards by using gold. Moreover this art of decorating with colors and gold is also applied on wood and leather. All the paints that were used in book making were natural paints in the old days like madder and paints in powder form. Today we use water, oil and acrylic colors that don’t distort the paper. Illuminators have used gold and navy blue together for many years and thus created a very smooth effect in the eye of the beholder. Aside from these colors, turquoise and the other tones of blue, red, green, and black have also been used extensively in the Islamic art -illumination-. Flowers were and are usually painted in light colors. Pale yellows, pink tones and light blues are the best colors from flowers. We can observe both harmonizing and opposing colors in the works. The  motifs which have been most often employed in illumination are ”rumi”, consisting of stylized wings and beaks; geometric forms like triangle, hexagon, octagon;”munhani”, serried curves popular with the ”Seljuks”; ”hatai”, which are stylized floral motifs; clouds, a swirled effect of Chinese origin and as an auxiliary motif the ”tig”.We can classify these motifs in six main groups and these are; animal motifs, plant patterns, the cloud motif, geometrical motifs and symbols, the chain motif or fretworks, mixed motifs. The motifs used in illumination are sometimes used alone but they can also come together in a composition which has a defined form. These forms make up closed spaces and they have given shapes. These forms are; the rosettes, the sun motif, the corner and supports, the crests and the borders.

Two techniques of composition are free compositions and symmetrical compositions. Free composition comes into existence by the motifs which start at a given point and continue on spiral lines. It doesn’t obey strict rules. Symmetrical composition comes into existence by straight or oblique lines that come together due to given rules. The lines which make up the composition can be increase by 2, 4, 8 or more. Symmetric compositions have to stick to the rules and they obey the given scheme.

 

2- Tezhip

Tezhip comes from the word zehep (gold) in Arabic.It means illumination.Turkish Illumination Art can be determined as the decoration art made by using gold.Not only gold is used,but also paint is used in works and this works are used in books,old edicts,good writing arts,in motifs of wood and leather.Person who works on illumination named as “müzehhip” or “müzehhibe”. The Illumination Art is usually known as a “writing decoration” and it is adopted as the dress of the good writing.In Turks,we can define 2 periods about this art,one is the period before Islam the other is the period After Islam.The begining of Turkish Illumunation Art goes to Uygur”s with Manila Religion in 9th century.After Admission of Islam the art is developed paralel with the respect to science and Quran.The development and the riched motif variations can be chronologically seen.The illumination art is also the shows the importance given to books on handwritten books.An illuminated hand-written book also shows the importance given to its owner.Illumination Art is mostly seen on the Quran,the Muslıms Holy- Book.Because Quran is the most precious book either Muslim Turks or other nations.For this reason,the best Illıminatıon Art can be seen in Qurans. The Illumination Art is mostly used in hand-written books especially in hand-written Qurans,this can be easily seen in books comes from old years.The importance given to Quran Illumination also can be seen in cover of the book thus the artist want to design the God”s word from its cover to its point.If the rules are practiced,illumination can be used without writings,as only illumination. The oldest hand-made books known are Qurans which belong to the first 300 years of Islam. The person who is first made the Quran designed is Hz.Ali.At the begininig,illumination used to seperate the verses,later it is used in prostration roses and page border designs.Especially,big roses are used in 11th-12th centuries. At the present day,the illumination art is used to design good writings,miniatures or it is used in tekstile on the designs of motifs. In our museums,there are many illuminations,ceramics,flags,carpets,kilims,wood works,glass works,which are maden by Turkish tradition and gratification.The treatises are important to show that many characteristics like colour,design and work are carried on traditionally.