Abstract:

Servet-i Fünûn (The Wealth of Sciences) was an Ottoman illustrated magazine published between 1891-1944. The magazine included science, culture, literature, travel, and novels and had rich art content. The articles, written between 1896 and 1901 with the contributions of the intellectual circle around the Ottoman intellectual Tevfik Fikret, generally covered the subjects of literature and aesthetics. There were very few references to the plastic arts in these articles. However, the visual arts were one of the main themes of the magazine’s illustrated pages. Art reproductions were published from the earliest issues of the magazine. However, local conditions were insufficient for reproduction and printing. It was, therefore, necessary to import reproduction plates from other countries. This study analyses the European reproductions used in Servet-i Fünûn, an Ottoman illustrated periodical. Servet-i Fünûn’s use of reproductions related to Western art is linked to multiple fields such as photo-mechanical developments, reproduction, and illustrated periodicals. For this reason, the sample reproduction analyses are based on the development of illustrated periodical publishing and reproduction in Europe, the transfer of these developments to the Ottoman press, and the thoughts and debates around these phenomena. In this way, the study aims to show how the reproduction mobility from Europe to the Ottoman Empire was formed and how the works of art obtained from the same cliché were transformed between magazines belonging to different geographies within the first ten years of the periodical, together with their technical, cultural and artistic dimensions. In order to study the early stages and development of the reproduction trade, the first decade of Servet-i Fünûn (1891-1901) was included in the research. The signatures Napier, UNION X. A. and Bong X. A. abound in the reproductions published between the relevant years. In addition, the signature on all the reproductions was not legible or visible. However, when researching UNION X. A. and Bong X. A. through digital archives, it became clear that most reproductions without signatures came from the same source. Therefore, in this study, Die Gartenlaube and Modern Kunst: Illustrierte Zeitschrift, published by UNION X. A. and Bong X. A., were seen as evidence of the cross-country network of reproductions in which Servet-i Fünûn was included. It has been found that examples of art reproductions published in Servet-i Fünûn were published in relevant magazines in the same year or previous years. The form and position of the signatures are precisely the same. The following conclusions can be drawn from the editorial and discursive analyses of the images: The reproductions were published in magazines of two different countries, usually at close dates. In general, the pictures were named differently in each country. However, there were also images with the same name. One of the differences between countries in the reproductions is the copyright and information texts. Whereas in Servet-i Fünûn, only the name of the picture was given under the image, in its European counterparts, detailed information was given, such as the painter, the name of the painting, the print, and the source of the photograph. Pictures in European journals were accompanied by a short text describing the picture’s composition. Servet-i Fünûn briefly explained landscape, architectural, and portrait photographs, but art reproductions were rarely accompanied only by poems or stories. These stories and poems were texts that described the composition in the picture and provided words to guide the imagination that might arise in the audience. As a result, the paintings published in Servet-i Fünûn were evaluated together with the cross-country art reproduction network. It was understood that the paintings in mobility had the details that formed their tradition and discourse in Ottoman geography.

Keywords: