Calligraphic Panel

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Mahmud Celaleddin was a celebrated 19th century Ottoman calligrapher who developed his own distinctive style of writing the magnified scripts known as celi. This levha (calligraphic panel) consists of a Turkish verse text arranged in eight lines.

O heart do not be proud, the world’s fate is bleak
You may enjoy worldly prosperity, but the end is still sorrow
Sorrow and worry are the sad inevitability
What are joy and gladness when in the end all is grief and misery
Resign yourself to God, o heart, be as one
Let us see, whatever God sees fit is pure goodness
Launch the boat of affairs on the sea of resignation
Unfurl the sail of endeavour and see what comes to pass

At the left of the last two lines is the colophon, Sevvedehu Celâlüddîn (Celaleddin scribbled this). In each of the small rectangular panels flanking these lines is a tulip in the naturalistic style of the period painted on a gold ground. The cablework decoration in the narrow inner border and the halkâr decoration in the outer border are attributed to the 20th century illuminator Rikkat Kunt (d. 1986).

Detail

Collection:

Kitap Sanatları ve Hat Koleksiyonu

Title:

Calligraphic Panel

Dimensions:

53,5 x 41,5 cm

Medium:

Thick paper, black ink, paint, gold

Location:

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Object Number:

130-0074-MC

Credit:

Exhibition History

Calligraphic Panel

Detail

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