Mytilene Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The subject of this article is the wall paintings decorating the two houses on the island of Mytilene in Greece. These aforementioned wall paintings have a great similarity in terms of subject and style with a group of wall paintings seen in Western Anatolia in the first half of 19th century. In addition to the similarities, it is also important to point out
where and how a particular style developed within itself transported within the Ottoman boundaries in the date of its establishment.The paintings are located at theHouse of Vareltzidenas in Petra and the House of Giannakos in Molova. In both houses, four sea landscapes with similar views and an imaginary Istanbul panaroma are depicted. A building is placed at the center of uninterrupted sea views.The structures are two-storied and twosided buildings surrounded by trees on a wide platform. Various buildings such as towered or towerish structures/buildings, houses, mosques and passage structures were painted. The paintings of the buildings such as Zeytinliova Kara Osmanoğlu Mosque, Manisa Sultan Mosque, Urla Kapan Mosque, BirgiÇakırAğa Mansion, BirgiSandıkeminoğulları House, İzmir Şadırvanaltı Mosque in Western Anatolia serve as examples of this painting group. In addition to the stereotyped forms in the buildings; the sea and sky given by their color tones, the ships traveling in the sea and the birds flying in the sky have the common features that resemble the landscape compositions in these structures.The panoramas of Istanbul, seen in both houses, have similar characters with the monumental Istanbul panoramas, which are shown in three land pieces in Western Anatolia. The Istanbul paintings, which were portrayed with great passion within the borders of the Empire, are generally considered to
be the symbol of longing for the capital city or the symbol of Ottoman-style life. However, the most interesting attitude exhibited in the imaginary Istanbul panorama in the Petra Vareltzidenas House is that the city is illustrated as deprived of mosques that define and characterize the city. This situation can be considered as an ideological message. In several other structures in Greece, it is known that Istanbul views are illustrated without mosques, which are the religious symbols of the city. Although the Istanbul panaroma depicted in the Molova Giannokos House is considered realistic than the Istanbul panaroma in the Petra Vareltzidenas House, buildings, which are not possible to take place in the same painting, are united together, which suggests that the artist may have used the existing prototypes. Apart from these paintings, there are also single building descriptions at the seacoast, various still-life paintings, flowers, curtain and colums motifs and paintings with figures in the Petra Vareltzidenas House. One of the common features of such paintings in Anatolia is that they were generally made without figures. However, the presence of a large number of figures in the paintings in the Petra Vareltzidenas House can be linked to the fact that the owner is non-Muslim. Each composition gives the impression of telling a different tale or event. As a conclusion, the paintings in the Vareltzidenas House in Petra and the Giannakos House in Molova, attract attention as the representatives of the painting samples of some
characteristics of the painting program of Sultan Mahmoud II which are found in Izmir, Manisa and its surroundings from the beginning of the 19th century, in the Aegean Islands. The similarities of the paintings, which create the impression of being worked out quickly and by the professional artists, are also the evidence of the existence of a group of floating and traveling artists on the Aegean coast, hinterlands and the islands.