Şehzade mosque in Istanbul

Description

Featured in the 1836 collaborative work of Thomas Allom and Robert Walsh, this steel engraving depicts the Şehzade Mosque, one of Mimar Sinan's early masterpieces, and the vibrant square surrounding it. While the mosque's perfectly symmetrical cascading domes and minarets rise in the background, a monumental public fountain (sebil) adorned with fine stone carving is situated in the right foreground. In the square, which forms the focal point of the artwork, street vendors, pack animals, street dogs (the symbol of Istanbul), and figures engaged in a heated argument/altercation are illustrated. This visual aesthetically documents that in the Ottoman capital, high monumental architecture was not isolated from the organic, chaotic, and commercial reality of the street, but rather stood at the very center of life.