Three Anonymous Istanbul Views from the Early Nineteenth Century

Year 2023, Volume: 5, 183 - 185, 31.12.2023

K. Mehmet Kentel

https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2023.10

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract:

In 2018, three anonymous and hitherto unpublished, unexhibited drawings of Istanbul by the same hand, previously part of Dr. Müfid Ekdal’s collection, were donated to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation by his son Oral Ekdal, upon Dr. Ekdal’s passing. One of them, a 360-degree, threeand- a-half-meter-long panorama, inspired researchers and curators working at the Istanbul Research Institute and Pera Museum to work on an exhibition on the history of Istanbul panoramas. Four years after preparations began, On the Spot: Panoramic Gaze on Istanbul, a History, curated by Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, K. Mehmet Kentel, and M. Baha Tanman, opened on October 26, 2023, at the Pera Museum, and greets its visitors with the aforementioned panorama. While the exhibition and its accompanying catalog explore various facets of Istanbul’s panoramic imaginaries through the centuries and firmly locate Istanbul as a crucial spot within the global history of panoramas, this short piece aims to briefly introduce these three recent additions to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation collections to the scholarly community.

Keywords

panorama, urban history, architectural history, art history, nineteenth century

References

• Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, K. Mehmet Kentel, M. Baha Tanman, eds., Tam Yerinden: İstanbul’a Panoramik Bakışın Tarihi / On the Spot: Panoramic Gaze on Istanbul, a History (Istanbul: Pera Müzesi, 2023).
• Baha Tanman, “III. Selim Dönemine Ait İki Panoramada İstanbul’un Şehir Dokusu ve Mimari Detayları / Istanbul’s Urban Fabric and Architecture in Two Panoramas Dating to the Reign of Selim III,” in Tam Yerinden / On the Spot, 102–168.