Page 105 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

49a. Tortoiscshell and silver binding (exterior left, interior right) from an
album, c. 1560 (istanbul Université Kütüphanesi, F. 1426)

view with one knee tucked under and the other bent up, ings are inscribed simply "Velican/' written in a different
echoing the movement of the drooped and raised wings, was hand at a later time." One example, however, a study of ha-
copied in a number of other examples. The peri is bareheaded tayi blossoms and buds with the name hidden among the fo-
and sports a topknot, the characteristic hairstyle of these crea- liage, seems to bear an authentic signature. 100 Even though it
tures. She sits in a relaxed manner, hovering in space with is difficult to determine how many of the drawings attributed
sketchy clouds appearing overhead. The figure is modeled to Velican were actually by his hand, the artist appears to
with washes and fine lines that suggest volume; her wings have been renowned for his drawings and recognized as a
are extremely well drawn and delicately detailed, as are her master of the saz style.
garments and floating ribbons. Although rendered carefully Velican, recorded in the payroll registers of 1596 and men-
with touches of gold, the drawing reflects a slight mannerism tioned in the documents relating to the 1584/1585 volume of
in brushstrokes, particularly in the hem of the garment and the Hünername as being one of its illustrators, was a student
the curves of the ribbons. of Siyavu$ the Georgian, a painter in the Safavid court. Veli-
The inscription giving the name of Velican appears to be a can, who must have come to istanbul in the 1570s, was the
later attribution, with the same wording and style of writing last practitioner of the saz style, which lost favor in the Otto-
found on several album drawings. A number of other draw- man court after 1600.

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