Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Blog 2 - The Illuminated Tugra of Sultan Suleyman


      A tugra is an imperial cipher, it's a work of calligraphy that is the result of combining a ruler's name, title and the motto "Eternally Victorious" (at least in the Ottoman version anyway.)
     I like this piece because it has something that I greatly enjoy in art: detail. Look at the intricate patterns on the left side of the piece, inside the largest loop, it looks as if some sort of vine is swirling around, much like a whirlpool. My most favorite detail though, is the small pattern on the right side that is akin to a Celtic knot, it looks almost like someone started with a pattern in mind and gradually lost sight of it, to the point that it went from something well thought-out to something that's haphazard, but also looks pretty. Obviously the appearance of this detail was intended to look like it does, seeing as how the large, central design (which I believe to be lettering) leads into the knots. Another detail which I admire is the lettering itself, not so much the lettering in the central design, but the gold and black lettering beneath it; Arabic lettering probably looks quite simple to the speakers/writers of the language, but it seems incredibly complex to this Westerner.
     The only thing that I do not like about this piece is the fact that the groups of lettering under the central design do not go with the flow of that design, so it looks like random writing that's just there. Another aspect of this tugra that I find appealing is the coloring. Blue and gold seems to be used often in Islamic pieces of art and I, personally find the combination of blue and gold attractive. Additionally, another reason draws me to this piece of art: it hits home. It reminds me of metal band logos which, in my opinion are works of art in and of themselves; some might be derivative (in fact, very derivative) of other logos, but they are still incredibly complex pieces of art that look menacing (to the metal community, menacing artwork is good) and at times, even beautiful. I have two examples here, the logo to the bottom-left belongs to the generally popular Swedish band, Opeth, while the one to the bottom-right belongs to the obscure, now defunct, American black metal band, Xasthur.
     All in all, this tugra, the illuminated tugra of Sultan Suleyman is a very beautiful piece of artwork and remains a central piece of Islamic art in my mind.

3 comments:

  1. Great observations. I especially like how you have compared it to something that you have seen in the modern graphic realm. This tugra reminds me so much of logo design. How interesting it is that so many years ago people were using symbols to identify themselves.

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  2. I really love this piece! It was definitely my favorite piece in the Islamic chapter in the book. When I first saw it, it reminded me of a treble cleft, at the beginning of lines of written music. The big swirl at the left is what mainly reminded me of that.
    I agree that the pattern to the lower left is very pretty. It sort of looks like a weaving pattern. And I do also like the combination of the blue and gold.
    Most of all, when I think of this, or any Islamic art, including architecture, I always think back to the Disney movie Aladdin; and not just because I am watching it as I am typing this. Haha!

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