Istanbul Alive Magazine April 2014 ISTANBUL ALIVE APRIL 2014 | Page 23

SHIFT TO THE WEST

TULIP PERIOD
The Tulip era (Turkish: Lale Devri) is a name given to a period in the
Ottoman history between 1718 - 1730, a period signified with
absolute peacefulness, an era during which the Ottoman empire
began to shift its orientation from east to west, namely to Europe.

Levni &
Baptise Van Mour
renaissance in these years. The palace
placed great importance on poetry
and artists in particular. The final
masterpieces of the Turkish Classical
period were completed, principally
the Emetullah Gülnus Valide mosque,
the Ahmed III fountain, the Üsküdar
fountain, the Ahmed III library and
the Damat Ibrahim Paşa Complex
(Külliye). The Tulip Period ended
with the Patrona Halil uprisings.
A majority of the villas and tulip

gardens which had symbolised the
penod were destroyed ın the revolts.
Tulip Period was visually recorded by
Van Mour Van Mour was a native of
Valenciennes, a Flemish town that
at the time of his birth belonged to
the Spanish Netherlands, but since
1678 to France. He studied art in the
studio of Jacques-Albert Gérin, and
his work attracted the attention of an
aristocrat and statesman of the time,
Marquis Charles de Ferriol. Van Mour

was invited to go to Constantinople
when De Ferriol was appointed there
as the French Ambassador in 1699.
De Ferriol commissioned van Mour to
do one hundred portraits of the local
people. In 1711 De Ferriol returned
to France and van Mour worked
for a variety of other diplomats. In
the meantime De Ferriol published
a series of one hundred engravings
(after the paintings) in Recueil de cent
estampes représentant différentes
I S TA N B U L A L I V E •

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