Trees in 16th century Ottoman miniature art

As one of the enchanting elements of the nature, tree has been reflected on arts throughout the history as a manifestation of its many profound meanings for humans. The fact that trees are important motives in religious beliefs, in addition to their significance in mythology, makes them valuable by taking one step closer to sacredness. The subject of our thesis is tree depictions in miniatures of 16th century Ottoman as a representation of past, along with their symbolic meanings and aesthetical values. In 16th century, covering the rule of six sultans from Bayezid II (1447-1512) to Mehmet III (1566-1603), many miniature artwork were created in both art studios of the Palace and other cities of the Empire, depicting various subjects from literature to history, religious texts to science. In our thesis, we analysed tree illustrations in the light of such elegant treasury. After than describing sociocultural bonds of tree throughout the history, reflections on religious and art, the tree theme in Ottoman miniature is analysed through various from different aspects. For the body part of the thesis, vast number of manuscripts were studied in detail and a rich inventory of were acquired. Trees of Ottoman miniature art were examined under different sections with their distinctive styles, locations in relevant compositions, colours used, their types, symbolic language and iconography, and the significance of tree illustrations in miniature art was discussed. In examining trees of Ottoman miniature through manuscripts of 16th century, botanic was a field of science employed and helped us determine tree types, along with historical sources, travels, various documents. In the light of such analysis, it was observed that the realist attitude of 16th century miniature art was reflected on these illustrations to a great extent, and added on value of their position as reflections from the past, like a documentary. Symbolic meanings of trees were also searched for this thesis. The connections between origins of trees in myths and superordinate references in relevant depictions are questioned, and functions of trees were discussed in relation.