ORIENTALISM
The discipline of Orientalism, whose existence can be traced back as far as the existence of the East and the West, is fundamentally founded on a struggle for dominance and conflict that is thought to prevail between the Eastern and Western worlds. The root of the word Orient means “East, east”. At this point, Orientalism is used as something related to the East, and although it is about examining the society, cultures, languages and peoples of the Near and Far East, this term is actually used in a negative sense. Today, Orientalism is a lens through which Eastern peoples are shown as frightening and “other”. At this point, the situation we encounter is to produce the “East” in an imaginary way and a negative atmosphere has emerged against Orientalism and Orientalists. Geographical discoveries have been particularly effective in the development of Orientalism and the process has continued along with it. The subjects that have attracted the most attention of Orientalists have been Islam and Arabic literature. After the development of Western colonialism in the East, Orientalism took the form of researching all Eastern languages, customs and traditions, civilizations, the geography of Eastern countries, the traditions and customs of those living there, and the most famous dialects of the languages they spoke. One of the important factors in the West's definition of the East is the reflection of Orientalism in the field of art. In painting, photography, cinema, etc., Orientalist artists have processed and presented the East they have imagined rather than the real one. At this point, one of the states that attracted their attention the most was the Ottoman Empire. Because especially after the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire began to decline and entered a path that blended the European style with its own culture. At this point, the imagination or fictional world of Orientalists began to take shape even more. Orientalists were particularly interested in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, the Holy Lands and the North African coasts, in short, the Muslim Mediterranean countries, because at that time, the opportunities to visit these cities or to receive news from them were much greater. Although the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state, elements such as the harem and the slave market attracted the attention of European artists. For this reason, these subjects were emphasized the most and European artists added sexual objects and fantasies to their works. There is a counter-current developed by Eastern thinkers against this approach.
OXIDENTALISM (Occidentalism)
The term is the inverse of Orientalism. However, it is not the opposite of Orientalism in the orientalist sense, but the process of trying to understand the West with its own arguments and trying to produce a counter-discourse. At the same time, it is a discipline that rejects the image of the East defined by the West and focuses on what the real image of the East is. The point it opposes the most is to break the primitive, undeveloped and development-proof image of the East determined by the West and to break the perception of the East that the West has standardized. Because the East is far outside the perception that the West is trying to create. For this reason, Occidentalism is actually the West's prejudices about Islam and the Islamic world, as well as its dealing with ignorance and ignorance. At this point, Osman Hamdi Bey, who is considered the first archaeologist, studied art and founded the first fine arts academy in Turkey, and his teacher Grome, from whom he learned his art, had an ideological conflict, and this conflict was reflected in his works.
SOME ORIENTALIST PAINTERS' INTERPRETATION OF THE OTTOMAN
(Fausto Zonara, Walking by the Sea 1899)
Fausto Zonara's Walking by the Sea (1899) was a painter who took the Ottoman Empire from an orientalist perspective. Moreover, he had a very important characteristic that distinguished him from some orientalist painters. That was that he actually came to the Ottoman Empire and lived there. For this reason, there was reality in his works, not a fictional reflection. He made many paintings about the Ottoman Empire. The analyses in his paintings were extremely realistic, especially because he was able to observe Ottoman society very closely.
(Jean-Leon Gerome, Pool in a Harem, 1876)
Gerome is one of the most famous names in orientalism with the many students he trained. Gerome, like his friends who adopted other orientalist ideas, went to the Ottoman Empire, East and North Africa but never lived in these countries for a long time. For this reason, according to some orientalists, his works are fictional. The most important thing that catches our eye in this picture where he depicts the harem is that Gerome could never enter the harem and he portrayed this harem without any idea. In this case, Gerome depicted a harem with his own fictional reality and humiliated the Ottoman palace or women in this depiction.
(Henriette Browne: a Visit: Harem Interior, Constantinople, 1860.)
When comparing the harem paintings made by Henriette Browne and Gerom, we understand that Henriette had actually been in the harem and a painting reflecting the truth was drawn. Gerom, on the other hand, showed a completely opposite thought to the Ottoman harem lifestyle and figuratively reflected his own imagination and fantasies in his painting. At the same time, since Gerom was a male painter, he did not have the right to know the harem closely, so the harem painting he painted reflected his own imagination and fantasies. However, since Henriette was a woman, she could easily enter the harem. And she was given the rights to enter the harem. The most fundamental difference between the two painters stemmed from this point. Henriette's painting was the truth itself.
(Topkapi Palace Terrace, Gerome, 1886)
In the analysis of the painting, women are having fun, jumping into the pool and are depicted naked. The fantasies reflected by Gerome in this painting even led people in Europe to admire it at the time and questions were asked as to why we do not live like this. It was even said that there was no such exaggeration and incentive element even in the Rococo style. This palace and harem perception reflected by Gerome caused the Ottoman Empire to be interpreted quite differently and the truth to be distorted. At this point, his student Osman Hamdi Bey, who took lessons from him, would create works in this style when he returned from Paris to Istanbul to oppose these paintings of his teacher.
(Ingres, Turkish Bath, 1859-63)
Ingres lived in Paris throughout his life and never left. Although Gerome had never lived in Eastern countries, he had visited them, witnessed the culture and heard the stories, but Ingres never left Paris and painted this style of painting. The main reason why it was called this style was due to the fantasies in Ingres' confused mind. This painting he painted was not a Turkish bath. He especially wanted to show nudity in his work and he despised Ottoman women. He described the main purpose of the women in this composition as exhibiting themselves to single men in Europe and this was not a real Ottoman vision. At the same time, the purpose of the painting being circular was to give the feeling of secretly watching the women here. An atmosphere was created as if the painter had seen or secretly watched the events there. The original form of the painting was rectangular for many years but it was later changed to this form.
(Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814.)
The woman in the painting can be called the sultan's favorite or mistress. Here, Ingres again seriously humiliates the Ottoman woman. This painting refers particularly to Venus of Urbino, Titian 1538. However, there are obvious differences between the two paintings. In this painting, the fact that we can establish direct eye contact with the woman tells us that there is no sense of shame. In Venus of Urbino, Venus looking to the left shows that there is a sense of shame. This work, which puts a distance between Europe and the East, turns from an individual fantasy into a political message. The Ottomans are accused of being immoral. Here, the roundness and shape of the woman's body creates a perception such as meat, sexuality, fantasy, savagery, and the woman is thought of as meat ready to be eaten (her own fantasy).
(Osman Hamdi Bey A young Emir, studying 1878)
Osman Hamdi Bey went to Paris and became Gerome's student, where he received neoclassicism training. Then he returned and showed a reaction against the orientalists who misinterpreted the Ottomans. He used orientalism as a weapon. He reflected the real characteristics of the Ottomans by using the characteristics they revealed. The difference between the paintings created by Gerome and the reality is clearly seen in Osman Hamdi Bey's works.
(Osman Hamdi Bey, Girl Reading Quran, 1880)
(Osman Hamdi Bey, Mihrab 1901)
In both pictures, the women are very beautiful like figurines, in the other image, Mihrap 1901, a different Ottoman woman is very strong, when we look at the part below, she has read many books and spent time. The basic situation that Osman Hamdi Bey wanted to show here was that Ottoman women were very well-read and wise. There was no such perception as presented to the world in reality.
(Osman Hamdi Bey, The Tortoise Trainer, 1908)
One of Osman Hamdi Bey's most important paintings is The Tortoise Trainer. The philosophical meaning of the painting is quite important and valuable. While the Ottoman society was trying to catch up with a changing tradition, it was moving very slowly. However, the point that Osman Hamdi Bey emphasizes here is that we are the winners of the race between the tortoise and the hare. At the same time, in the painting, he calls on the tortoises to be his students and to follow my steps slowly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Meryem, Köse, Meryem, Küçük, ''Orientalism and Perception “The Other”'', The Journal of Social and Cultural Studies, Volume: I, Issue: 1, Year: 2015
https://www.sanatabasla.com/
https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/oryantalizm
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