Distant view of the Topkapı from the heights of Pera by Amadeo Preziosi (1816–82)
The Benaki’s Dr Fani-Maria Tsigakou and the Sadberk Hanım’s Hülya Bilgi have together curated a superb little exhibition of paintings of ‘the city of cities’ from the Athanasios and Marina Martinos Foundation (AMMF) collection combined with ecclesiastical chattels from the Sadberk Hanım Museum. The Galata Rum (Greek) Primary School closed in 1988 but was handed over to the Rum community in 2012. Its doors have just reopened after extensive restoration of the 19th-century Neo-Classical building by the architect Murat Tabanlıoğlu, and the building repurposed for exhibitions and cuttural events.
Two exceptionally rare 17th-century panoramas by Joachim Ottens (1663-1719) are among the 34 works by Amadeo Preziosi, Joseph Schranz, Michel-François Preault, Clara Barthold Mayer, Louis Lottier, Anton Ignaz Melling, Louis-François Cassas, Thomas Allom, Alfred-Marie-Joseph de Courville, Antoine-Laurent Castellan and Konstantin Kapıdağlı.
The title of the exhibition recalls a wonderful book of Ottoman tales by the author and poet Yahya Kemal Beyatlı. Why have they never been translated?
Panorama of the Old City and the Golden Horn by Joachim Ottens (1663-1719)
Distant view of the Topkapı from the heights of Pera by Amadeo Preziosi (1816–82)
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
