1. Research – Study

In order to study the ecclesiastic and lay artefacts of silversmithery made by orthodox Christians in Constantinople during the Late Ottoman period, one should initially consult the catalogue of relics belonging to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which was drafted in 1937 by G. Sotiriou. Moreover, a significant number of artefacts from Ottoman Constantinople can be found in ambries of monasteries located outside Turkey, as in Mount Athos, Patmos and St. Catherine Monastery of Mount Sinai, where artefacts made in other parts of the empire – not just the capital city – are also located. Moreover, a significant number of ecclesiastical silverware from Asia Minor, central Anatolia and the Black Sea, reached Greece along with the refugees after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. All these today are scattered in private collections, the Benaki Museum, as well as the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens. Important studies by A. Ballian and Y. Ikonomaki-Papadopoulos, as well as catalogues for exhibitions and private collections –for example the publication of silverware from the K. Notaras collection by K. Korre-Zografou– offer valuable insight into the art of silversmithery as crafted by the Greek Asia Minor communities. The recent work by B. Pitarakis and G. Merantzas is dedicated to the art of silversmithery by Greeks of Constantinople during the Late Ottoman Period. Within the context of this study, the silverware of the collection owned by the late Sevgi Gönül is examined. These are currently exhibited at the Sadberk Hanım Museum of Constantinople. Moreover, the contribution of G. Kürkman’s work on the subject of Ottoman imperial ciphers (tuğra) on silver artefacts is valuable.¹

2. Social and political context of silversmithery in Constantinople

It is not possible to describe a full picture of the developments in Ottoman silversmithery before the 18^th century. We do know, however, that until that time confiscation of material occurred frequently and that the aforementioned material was subsequently sent to the foundry. In 1789 the Sultan Abdülhamid I issued a decree forcing his non-Muslim subjects to surrender their silverware to the state. The Greek-Orthodox community was forced at the time to provide 5,000 okas (6,414.60 kg), the Armenian community 4,000 okas (5,131.70 kg) and the Jewish one 3,000 okas (3,848.80 kg). A similar decree had been issued earlier in 1755, while a third one was issued right after the ascension of Selim III to the throne, on April 1789.

The Late Ottoman Period coincided with a time of modernization and europeanization; at that time a new era was introduced at the Ottoman Empire with regard to the social and political history of its non-Muslim subjects. Mahmud II embraced European habits and adopted a reform policy known as Tanzimât, which was characterized by favourable terms to other ethnic-religious minorities inhabiting the Empire. The old prohibition on the construction of new religious buildings was repealed and both the reconstruction and repair of churches was encouraged. This kind of favourable social and political climate assisted the development of a Greek-Orthodox “aristocracy” including merchants, medical doctors, lawyers and intellectuals. Many of them were members of the Greek Philological Association of Constantinople, founded in 1861, which produced important intellectual and charitable work. Both the aesthetics and demands of this particular social class, which kept close relations with Europe, notably influenced the construction and decoration of churches in the Ottoman capital.

In a significant number of extant silver artefacts, dedicative inscriptions are documented accompanied by the year the artefact was dedicated or constructed, which is verified in some cases by the presence of the imperial cipher (tuğra). Silver artefacts dated after the reformations of Sultan Abdülmecid I (1840), bear an extra seal (sah) along with the tuğra. The two seals certify the purity of the silver. The dedicative inscriptions provide valuable information on the activities of guilds and confraternities, to which members of the Greek-Orthodox community were enlisted. The community’s religious life was organized along a system of guilds and confraternities, following a tradition dating back to the Byzantine era. These guilds were very active in both charitable and intellectual work.

Rich silver mines, located close to Trabzon and Argyroupoli (Gümüşhane) supplied the artisans of the Ottoman capital with raw material, while the multicultural environment in the city provided the necessary fertile ground for innovations in design. The great and constant demand for silver artefacts by several of the communities inhabiting Constantinople constituted the city a desirable destination for specialized artisans originating from Anatolia and the Balkans.

3. Diffusion of artistic movements from Europe to the Ottoman Empire

Ecclesiastical utensils were made at the silversmith workshops of Ottoman Constantinople (chalices, patens, tabernacles, censers, basins, pans, cups, candles, myrrh containers), devotional objects (icon revetments, oblations), symbols of priestly power (pastoral staffs), as well as lay artefacts with versatile meaning and usage (phiales, patens, pans), artefacts of symbolic but also financial value. In both cases the artefacts bore rich floral and faunal decorations originating from the contemporary European artistic movements in Europe. These decorations in their entirety attest to the contribution of Constantinople to the greater network of intellectual, cultural and artistic connections expanding in western and central Europe, the Balkans and Russia during the Late Ottoman Period. Indeed, these decorative themes are part of the general process of the westernization and europeanization of the Ottoman Empire; this phenomenon is also apparent in the development of other artistic expressions in Constantinople, such as architecture and painting. The silversmiths of Ottoman Constantinople are responsible for fusing styles from different artistic traditions and reintroducing the decorative patterns of their Byzantine predecessors of the 5^th and 6^th centuries. This process, however, was filtered through the 18^th-century European neoclassical artworks, as well as the neo-gothic, renaissance and baroque trends that resurfaced from the mid-19^th century. Simultaneously, they developed an extensive relationship with the rococo style, which better expressed the Ottoman character, as well as their love of flowers and gardens.

More specifically, the introduction and diffusion of the rococo style in the Ottoman Empire –while not, however, being able to accurately define its earliest manifestations– was part of a lengthy modernization process and an attempt to approach Europe both culturally and commercially; this attempt greatly benefited from contemporary diplomatic delegations. Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi, who visited France in 1721-1722 as a special envoy of the Sultan Ahmed III, brought back upon his return to Constantinople architectural and decorative manuals. His impressions and experiences in Paris were often used by historians to prove the Ottoman approach to the French civilization.

The fact that aspects of the French culture were enthusiastically adopted in the empire, a practice which was heightened during the second half of the 18^th century, came as a direct result of the diplomatic relations between the Sublime Porte and France, mainly due to the mediation of the French ambassador Marquis de Villeneuve who convinced the Ottomans to sign the peace Treaty of Belgrade in 1739. During the return of Mehmed Said Efendi, son of the aforementioned Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi, two ships travelled from Paris to the Ottoman capital carrying numerous objects, among which there were many pieces of furniture, as well as silver artefacts.

From the second half of the 18^th century European objects were imported en masse in Constantinople, as well as books with decorative patterns, all of which advanced the dissemination of European styles and trends. The Ottomans welcomed the floral world of the rococo style, as it was very similar to their aesthetic predilections. At the same time cultural life in Constantinople was marked by the extended use of rococo and neoclassical themes with regard to architectural decorations. The public fountains built during the 18^th century appear to be the earliest architectural constructions using the rococo style. This style was rapidly introduced, subsequently, to the wall-mounted painting of mosques, palaces and houses, as well as silversmithery.

The neoclassical style in Constantinople was mainly applied in buildings constructed during the reign of Mahmud II. Indeed, its fusion with the rococo tradition, dating to the 18^th century, was equally popular at the beginning of the next century. Many of the neoclassical buildings of Constantinople erected during the second half of the 19^th century, were designed and built by European architects, while the neoclassical style prevailed in ecclesiastical architecture. The façades of the new churches built in Constantinople, as well as their templons, were built in the manner of ancient Greek temples with a triangular pediment and Corinthian capitals.

The Sultans’ interest in European aesthetics during the 19^th century and their appetite for European artistic products is proved by the visit of the Sultan Abdülaziz I in 1867 Paris as a guest-of-honor of Napoleon III for the Industrial Exhibition that took place at Champs-Élysées. This singular fact marks the first and only time in the history of the Ottoman Empire that a Sultan visited a non-Muslim country. During his visit Abdülaziz was informed for the general decorative trends in silversmithery in different European countries.

During the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Constantinople was at the centre of a cultural, artistic and commercial network with connections in Europe and the Balkans, which also affected ecclesiastical silversmithery. The transport of artists and merchants within this network contributed to the exchange of religious objects, such as copper engravings, the decorative patterns of which also influenced silversmiths. The circulation of the same engravings in Central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, Russia, Constantinople and Jerusalem allowed the development of a homogeneous artistic expression and composition. Moreover, printed books reproducing rococo and neoclassical decorative subjects, as well as religious themes taken from the western painting were easily acquired by the orthodox silversmiths of the Ottoman capitals from printing houses in Venice, Paris, Amsterdam and Vienna.

Engravers, painters and silversmiths working in Constantinople were in close connection to their counterparts in Mount Athos, a significant production centre of artistic art during the Post-Byzantine period. Equally important, as far as relations with the Ottoman Empire capital were concerned, was the place of Russia. In churches of Constantinople –especially in the Ecumenical Patriarchate– a great number of Russian ecclesiastical objects are kept, gifts by Czars and ecclesiastical officials. Sources refer to the presence of Greek goldsmiths in Moscow, specializing in enamel at the Kremlin workshops, as early as the 17^th century.

Along with Mount Athos and Russia, another greater area including Moldavia, Transylvania and Wallachia, constituted the third most significant place for silversmithery during the Late Ottoman period. Documents and dedicative inscriptions on silver artefacts, kept in important monastery centres such as Patmos, attest to the generosity of the Moldavian and Transylvanian princes. Also documented in the sources is the financial support offered to the churches of Constantinople by the princes of Wallachia and Transylvania. Moldavia, Transylvania and Wallachia inherited a great tradition in silversmithery, a legacy which appears to have contributed greatly to the introduction of western elements in the Orthodox religious art. Goldsmiths and silversmiths working for Wallachian princes created a fusion style combining the Byzantine iconographical standards with western manierisms, thus playing a key part in the dissemination of the rococo and baroque styles to the Balkans and the silversmithery workshops in the capital.

Another area in the Balkans that became a significant centre for silversmithery during the 18^th century was Epirus. Catalogues of a census conducted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople indicate that the ecclesiastical silversmithery of Epirus was transferred, due to the relocation of silversmiths, to Constantinople.

4. Ideological context of silversmithery in Constantinople