The Art of Miniature of Painting (Minyatur)

One of the Turkish arts, miniature painting, was adapted from its Central Asian precursors. “Miniature” comes from the Latin miniare, which means painting with red. Since old books were painted with minium, red sulyen paint, the pictures in these books are known as miniatures.

It seems that the Uighur Turks were some of the first to do miniature paintings in the Islamic world, which later spread to India, Iran, and Turkey. Herat, in present-day Afghanistan, was a center of miniature painting during Tamerlane’s (d. 1405) time. Soon afterward, the first miniature school opened in Baghdad, while the oldest Ottoman miniature is dates back to Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s fifteenth-century reign.

One of the most famous miniatures is Fatih’s portrait, painted by Sinan. European influences during this period include dress curls and tonal differences. During the reign of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, the development and production of miniatures increased dramatically and continued through the 16th and 17th centuries. Levni formed a new style with art and color perspective in the 18th century.

The essential material of the miniature is paper after it is treated with certain processes. In some works the background base is covered by glue or a gold leaf is attached to it. The design is drawn with a thin sable brush dipped in water so that the places to be painted are visible with colors in harmony, pleasing to the eyes.

Miniatures are drawn without perspective; proportion for people is a function of their importance. Additional characteristics of miniature painting are: 1) not creating dimensional differences in scenes or with buildings, and 2) showing all the details using gold and silver. In miniature works, the colors are made by crushing the soil, stone, and colorful minerals in a stone mortar.

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