Gurnard Still Lifes in European and Turkish Painting
Yasemin Dora, Evren YılmazIn the history of art, still life-display arrangements of natural elements, such as flowers, fruits, games, and artefacts are remarkable. The objectives of fish-themed still lifes have differentiated over time in painting. The fish is an expression of abundance, fertility, and wealth. Besides anatomical peculiarities, such as large eyes and colorful fins, the gurnard’s humanlike face and red color attracted artists and became a subject in Japanese, Turkish, and European painting. Because early Turkish paintings gave precedence to flowers and fruits, the theme of fish appeared relatively late, although fish abound in Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait, owing to the Golden Horn. In Turkish painting, the 1914 Generation artists and then their students, who mostly studied in Europe, depicted the gurnard. Turkish artists who went to Europe between 1923 and 1933 began to work from an expressionist perspective. Because of their increasing tendency toward abstraction, naturalistic imitation lost significance except for infrequent examples. Thus, in Turkish painting, examples of fish-themed still lifes, which were previously infrequent, became even scarcer. This study is limited to examples in Turkish painting that depict the gurnard in a way that shows it’s peculiarities. In examples detected as gurnard depiction, both the style and the characteristics attributed to the fish were ascertained and compared with European and Turkish examples. The remarkable place the gurnard has in Turkish culture, more so than in European culture caused it to be depicted with the feelings which peculiar to humankind.
Avrupa ve Türk Resim Sanatında Kırlangıç Balığı Temalı Natürmortlar
Yasemin Dora, Evren YılmazÇiçek, meyve, av hayvanları gibi doğal öğeler ve insan yapımı nesnelerin düzenlenip betimlendiği natürmortlar sanat tarihinde büyük yer tutmaktadır. Balık temalı natürmortlar, resim sanatında farklı dönemlerde farklı amaçlarla betimlenmiştir. Balık, bolluk, bereket ve zenginliğin ifadesidir. Büyük gözleri, renkli yüzgeçleri gibi anatomik farklılıklarına ek olarak insana benzeyen yüzü ve kırmızı rengiyle de sanatçıları çeken kırlangıç balığının betimleriyle, Avrupa resminde olduğu gibi Japon ve Türk resminde de karşılaşılmaktadır. Türk resim sana-tında erken dönemde, çiçekler ve meyveler betimlenmiş, balık teması resme nispeten geç girmiştir. Halbuki İstanbul içinden Boğaz geçen bir kenttir ve Haliç nedeniyle balık çok boldur. Türk resminde kırlangıç balığını, en çok Avrupa’da eğitim gören 1914 Kuşağı’nın ve öğrencilerinin betimlediği görülmektedir. 1923-33 yılları arasında Avrupa’ya giden Türk sanatçıları dışavurumcu anlayışta yapıtlar üretmeye başlamış sonrasında soyutlama eğilimleri artmış ve sanatta doğalcılıktan uzaklaşılmıştır. Bu durum, Türk resim sanatında natürmortlarda zaten az olan balık temalı örnekleri iyice azaltmıştır. Çalışma Türk resim sanatında kırlangıç balığını betimlediği açıkça saptanan örneklerle sınırlandırılmıştır. Saptanan örneklerde, Avrupa sanatı ve Türk sanatı ekseninde balığın ele alınışında hem biçem anlayışları hem de bir canlı olarak balığa atfedilen özellikler tespit edilip karşılaştırma yapılmaya çalışılmıştır. Balığın Türk kültüründeki yerinin Avrupa kültürüne göre daha büyük olması, daha insani duygular yüklenerek betimlenmesine sebep olmuştur.
Fish, as a still life subject, have been presented in painting for different purposes in different periods. In ancient Greek art and Roman art, fish were often featured in wall paintings, especially in the rooms of the guests, to show the importance of hospitality. In Christianity, a fish symbolized Jesus and those who believed in him. In the Middle Ages, each branch of science symbolized fish according to its purview, for example, fish symbolized the moon for astronomers, the water for alchemists, and a cold-blooded temperament for doctors. As a still life subject, fish appeared in the northern and Spanish Netherlands in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and as an expression of abundance, fertility, and wealth. The association of sea creatures with fertility gave rise to different types of fish being illustrated with crustaceans, such as crabs, lobsters, or mussels.
Among these sea creatures, the gurnard, compared to other fish of the same size, has larger side fins and swims in the sea as if it were flying. Rather than swimming, the gurnard lives and hunts by walking on the bottom of the sea, using three finger-like projections on the underside of its body to do so. In addition, the red body, white belly, dark blue spots, and bright bluepurple color of the side fins, it’s human-like face, unusual type mouth and eyes attracted the artists. These anatomical differences caused gurnards to be portrayed more often in painting because art also served the purpose of documentation. One encounters this type of documentation in Japanese, Turkish, and European art. Compared to other world port cities, Istanbul is a city where fish are more abundant because of the Bosporus strait and the Great Horn. Fish have been consumed since antiquity. However, it was only in the nineteenth century that fish entered the Ottoman Palace cuisine in a diversified way and were loved. An increase in fish consumption also effected literature, where writers, such as Sait Faik Abasıyanık, frequently mentioned fish and fishermen in their works.
Still lifes are quite common in Turkish painting. Early, diverse examples include flowers and fruits that appear in miniatures and wall paintings. Depictions of dead animals, such as fish or game, entered Turkish still life paintings quite late in comparison to other subjects. In the early period of Turkish painting, non-Muslim artists had a much wider range of subjects, with examples of fish depictions among them. The first examples of the gurnard were created by Sopon Bezirdjian and Caliph Abdulmejid. Afterwards, the 1914 Generation artists and their students covered the subject more frequently. For Impressionist artists, light plays, the expression of instant light changes, was an essential effect. The red color and scales made gurnard a suitable subject for these games of light. For this reason, they were used as models of fish still lifes. The gurnard as a subject, however, was depicted more frequently in compari-son with other fishes. Its fins open like wings, and the sound it makes when it is taken from water is considered as a cry or a groan, which is considered bad luck. Artists must have been attracted to this because the fish is depicted with its mouth open, as if it were screaming. It is mostly portrayed with its gaze making contact with the viewer’s, with its eyes appearing, perhaps resentful. The fish has a remarkable place in Turkish culture more so than in European culture and is depicted with the feelings which peculiar to humankind.
Changes in culture and politics in Republican Period were reflected in Turkish painting, and still lifes with fish were produced less frequently. After 1950, in a move away from figurative expression, the subject was ignored, and gurnard depictions disappeared from Turkish art.
