Jfoliammedan Arl iii European Turkey art entered on a new phase at the taking of Constantinople (1453). If even at an earlier period Byzantine art had exercised a most important influence upon the plans of mosques, this was still more the case now that the old Agia Sofia had become the chief sanctuary of the Mussulmans and the pattern for all future mosques. Santa Sophia itself was by the addition of mina rets and various accessory structures altered to correspond with the new cult.
22 (figs. I, 2) shows the appearance of two Ottoman mosques; that of Sultan Bajazet belongs to the fifteenth century, that of Suleiman to the sixteenth. Pleasing from its interior decoration of Per sian glazed tiles is that built by the Sultana Valide in the seventeenth century, and particularly magnificent is that of Sultan Achmet, which has six minarets.
The palaces of the fifteenth century followed the system of the Alhambra in plan and structure, and there are still in Constantinople some elegant remains of more ancient times; but the bizarre influence of the West made itself felt more and more, and whatever is now built in Constantinople, though in some cases characterized by great richness or imposing dimensions and showing many remnants of ancient Oriental mol1/4, may yet be regarded as a degraded example of the style prevalent in France and Italy in the seventeenth century, and more particularly in the eighteenth. The tower of the Seraskierat (War-Office; fig. 3)
exhibits this fantastic Occidental style. Every stranger ascends this tower to enjoy the splendid view which it affords.
Fountain of Su/Ian has a number of mon umental fountains, of which that of Sultan Achmet (fig. 4) is the best known, and was made familiar to the entire West by an exquisite copy in the Vienna Exposition of 1873. It is a charming structure of marble, with a rich decoration of flat ornamental relief, with varied colors and gilding, and with elegant trellises to the angle pavilions. In some cases even here the elements of the Occidental and Oriental styles mingle with beautiful effect.
Mural we examine the ornamentation exhibited in all these works, as shown on Plates 19-22 and as given in detail on Plate 19 (figs. 4–it) and Plate 22 (figs. 5, 6), it becomes evident that the endeavor was always to enliven flat surfaces with diaper patterns, and that this was effected by most intricate, and often astonishing, combinations of interlacing lines and bands, into which foliage enters in only a subor dinate degree. But in Persia, and to some extent in India, a school of naturalistic plant-like decoration sprang up under the influence of imported Chinese products, and extended also to the ornamentation of European Turkey.