Levni
Levni, born Abdulcelil Celebi in Edirne during the late seventeenth century, was a prominent Ottoman painter and poet whose work significantly influenced the art of his time. He rose to prominence under the patronage of Sultan Ahmed III, whose reign marked the Tulip Period, a time of cultural revival in the Ottoman Empire. Levni began his artistic career in the royal design workshop, excelling in the decorative art of saz before transitioning to more representational styles, ultimately becoming known for his portraits and narrative paintings. His most notable work, the "Surname-i Vehbi," is a festival book commemorating the circumcision of Ahmed III's sons, showcasing Levni's innovative techniques in composition and movement, as well as his sophisticated use of color and brushwork.
Levni's artistry not only halted the decline of illustrated manuscripts but also initiated a second classical age of Ottoman painting, which persisted into the mid-eighteenth century. His influence extended beyond his lifetime, as subsequent artists sought to emulate his distinctive styles. Although the visual records he created are invaluable for understanding the cultural and social context of early eighteenth-century Istanbul, Levni's work also heralded the eventual blending of Ottoman painting with Western European elements. He passed away in 1732, leaving behind a rich legacy that continues to be celebrated in the history of Ottoman art.
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Subject Terms
Levni
Turkish painter
- Born: Unknown
- Birthplace: Edirne, Ottoman Empire (now in Turkey)
- Died: 1732
- Place of death: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now in Istanbul, Turkey)
A court painter for the Ottoman sultan, Levni was responsible for illustrating the Surname-i Vehbi, a manuscript produced around 1720 to record royal circumcision festivities. The more than one hundred illustrations he produced for the work are a crowning achievement of late Ottoman painting.
Early Life
Born Abdulcelil Celebi, the artist known as Levni (lehv-NIH) was born and raised in Edirne, which was the second Ottoman capital and the preferred residence of the sultans during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Little is known about Levni’s early life and education. The only contemporary account appears in a history published in 1734-1735 by Demetrius Cantemir, a resident at the Ottoman court between 1701 and 1710. A later account is found in the Mecmua-i Tevarih (1765-1787; compendium of histories) by Hafiz Huseyin Ayvansarayi.
The Ottoman sultan Mustafa II (r. 1695-1703) was most likely Levni’s first patron. However, Levni’s career is more closely associated with Mustafa’s brother, Ahmed III, whose reign between the years 1703 and 1730 is known as the Tulip Period in reference to his preoccupation with the flower. Ahmed III brought Levni with him when he moved the royal court to Constantinople in 1718. Upon his arrival, Levni entered the Ottoman nakkashane, or royal design workshop, where he began to work as an apprentice. According to Ayvansarayi, Levni excelled initially at the classical art of saz, a decorative style comprising abstract foliage and fantastic creatures. He later became interested in more representational and realistic forms of painting when he aspired to become a portraitist.
Sometime between 1700 and 1710, Levni left his signature on a portrait of Mustafa II in the Silsilename of Seyyid Muhammed, and in the following decade he signed twenty-two of the images in a well-preserved murakka, or album of figurative paintings. The compositional schemes and figural types in both of these early works are highly conservative. Levni achieved his mature style, however, in a series of paintings made for a manuscript of the Surname-i Vehbi, a festival book produced around 1720 to commemorate the circumcision of the sons of Amhed III. This, his crowning achievement, set a new standard for Ottoman painting in the eighteenth century. Levni’s virtuoso technique, his ability to create dramatic movement on the two-dimensional surface, and the clarity of his scenes remained unsurpassed in paintings by his contemporaries.
Life’s Work
Levni’s patron, Ahmed III, was a sensitive ruler with a cultivated artistic sense. Like many of his predecessors, he composed poetry and practiced calligraphy. Under his leadership, Constantinople underwent a cultural renaissance in the early eighteenth century, and the revival of painting under Levni may be seen as one component of a broader revitalization that also included such arts as ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and horticulture. Levni’s singular achievement halted the decline of illustrated manuscripts that had become notable after 1650 and stimulated what is frequently described as a second classical age of painting at the Ottoman court.
Levni appears to have held an elevated status in Ahmed’s court, for his title Celebi is an honorific given to gentlemen, scholars, and princes. In addition, the artist portrayed himself as a participant in the festival, riding in close proximity to the officials of the Enderun (the inner service of the palace) during the circumcision parade. Verses written by Levni have been preserved in the Topkapi Palace Museum, corroborating Ayvansarayi’s statement that he was a poet as well as a painter and suggesting that the artist belonged to the class of literati.
The subject of Levni’s visual masterpiece is a festival that took place over fifteen days and nights. While the entire program of the event was recorded by the poet Vehbi in the Surname-i Vehbi, it is clear that Levni’s illustrations reflect the artist’s own firsthand account of the ceremonies. His paintings capture the colors and bustling activity of the proceedings and detail their chief protagonists and architectural settings. Moreover, the illustrations leave an invaluable record of Istanbul at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They provide a rare sociological account of ceremonial practices under Ahmed III, when the Ottoman court was caught up in the prevailing trend for elaborate festivals. Among its many descriptive images of contemporary architecture, Levni’s Surname-i Vehbi contains the only extant visual record of the painting workshop, from which the sultan is shown watching the circumcision procession. The workshop is shown as a two-storied structure with shuttered windows and a tiled revetment on its lower facade.
With one exception, the paintings in the Surname-i Vehbi are spread over double folios. Each figure in the illustrations is presented individually and identified, yet the compositions successfully reconstruct the progression of events during the festival. Unlike Levni’s earlier works, which presented single figures, the Surname-i Vehbi maintains a narrative structure, in which an abundance of figures move through space and time in distinct relationship to one another.
Although in many cases Levni followed pictorial formulae established during the sixteenth century, his work bears an individual quality that renders it distinct from that of earlier or contemporary artists. He employed a variety of narrative techniques within the manuscript. In some cases, he used wide-angle compositions, and in others he chose close-up views. By alternating unique compositions with more repetitive units, Levni invigorated the progression of scenes in the book, and he devised an innovative technique for re-creating the continuous movement of parades. In a handful of double folios, Levni extended his narrative not only across two facing pages but also onto the following spread. In addition, by breaking groups of figures at one page’s edge, Levni sought to maintain continuity as his viewers turned the book’s folios.
Levni’s accomplishments extend to his virtuoso brushwork and unique use of color. His brush strokes not only delineate forms but also create texture, shading, and volume. By comparison with the bright primary colors that typify earlier Ottoman painting, Levni’s palette is subdued, incorporating olive greens, golden browns, rust, and beige. The subtlety of his palette and his use of metallic pigments to create shimmering highlights contribute an expressive style that was unprecedented in Ottoman painting. Unfortunately, Levni’s Surname-i Vehbi does not have a colophon, and as a result the exact date of its completion and presentation to the sultan are not known. Levni died in 1732 and was buried in the neighborhood of the Ortakcilar Mosque in Constantinople. His manuscripts were originally housed in the library built by Ahmed III in 1718 in the third court of the Topkapi Sarayi. Later, when the Topkapi Sarayi became a museum, they were moved to the Mosque of the Agas, near the palace’s harem.
Significance
Under the patronage of Sultan Ahmed III in Constantinople, Levni revived the nakkashane and stimulated a second classical age of manuscript painting at the Ottoman court—an era that extended into the middle of the eighteenth century. His influence is witnessed in a second copy of the Surname-i Vehbi made by the members of his studio several years later. Although they display a cruder manner of execution, the paintings in the later book mimic the compositional schemes, figurative groupings, and pictorial movements invented by Levni.
Levni’s version of the Surname-i Vehbi stands out not only as a masterpiece of Ottoman painting but also as the last great illustrated Ottoman manuscript. By the mid-eighteenth century, as Ottoman ambassadors were sent to Paris and Vienna, royal painting would begin to be infused with elements drawn from Western European art, bringing to an end the second classical age of Ottoman painting.
Bibliography
Atasoy, Nurhan, and Filiz Cagman. Turkish Miniature Painting. Istanbul: R. C. D. Cultural Institute, 1974. Good general survey of painting’s development under the Ottoman sultans. Contains information on the royal library and workshop. Illustrated.
Atil, Esin. Levni and the “Surname”: The Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Festival. Istanbul: Koçbank, 1999. The premier source on the artist and his manuscript. Provides reproductions of the Surname-i Vehbi’s illustrated folios alongside detailed descriptions of their content.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Turkish Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980. A good introduction to art of the Ottoman period, with a concise essay on the arts of book illustration.
Blair, Sheila S., and Jonathan Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994. Detailed survey of Islamic arts and architecture, with a chapter on Ottoman book arts. Contains illustrations and a complete list of bibliographic sources.
Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Art and Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999. Survey of Islamic art forms, with a chapter on the Ottomans and relevant bibliography.
Unver, Suheyl. Levni. Istanbul: Turkish Press, 1951. A concise monograph on the artist, with biographical detail and illustrations.