The sultan’s glittering gift has been re-created
By Cornucopia UK | October 30, 2017
Was it Horatio or his chelengk that attracted Emma? In the 1941 film
That Hamilton Woman Laurence Olivier played Lord Nelson opposite Vivien Leigh’s Emma Hamilton. The wife of the British Ambassador in Naples, William Hamilton, was clearly not the only feather in the admiral's cap. The sparkling turban decoration,...
Monica's meanderings
By Cornucopia | October 29, 2017
In a year that has been one of the most financially crippling in its 500-year history the Grand Bazaar resiliantly raises morale by celebrating today's Republic Day (Cumhuriyet Bayramı) with all the gusto it can summon. Here flags and Atatürk banners bring a festive glow the Yağlıkçılar Sokak, the lively...
Jordi Savall plays in his Ottoman world
By Cornucopia UK | October 24, 2017
The concert at the Wigmore Hall in London on Saturday (see Events), given by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI, is an opportunity for a British audience to get to know more about Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723), whose collection of Turkish, Armenian and Sephardic works in his
Book of the Science of...
The muralist that inspired the cover of the new Cornucopia
By Cornucopia | October 23, 2017
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Barış Suyabatmaz, the artist whose mural features so prominently in Monica Fritz's photograph on the cover of the latest
Cornucopia, out this week, made his career following his family’s footsteps. He is the grandson and son of Istanbul sign-painters
and the great-grandson of an Ottoman calligraphist and teaches Traditional Arts...
Portrait of an Artist, the Howard Hodgkin sale at Sotheby’s, October 24, 2017
By Thomas Roueché | October 15, 2017
That Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) was an important collector of Indian Art is well known – not least from the frequent displays of his work internationally (two might be
Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, at the Ashmolean, Oxford; and
Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700, Opulence and Fantasy,...
Posted in
Fine Art, Islamic Art
Two shows that transcend the Beyoğlu doldrums
By Cornucopia UK | September 29, 2017
İstiklal Caddesi is one of those confounding urban space that can be a heavenly mix of history, vitality and culture, or a hellish experience stumbling over concrete slabs and construction sites, so it’s only appropriate that two exhibitions on the avenue explore the holy and the profane.
Behind Mt. Qaf...
By Cornucopia UK | September 22, 2017
Istanbul's 15th Biennial,
A Good Neighbour, arrives in a Turkey grappling with a particularly eventful two years. I’ve had the opportunity so far to see three of the six main exhibition spaces: The Galata Greek Primary School, the Pera Museum, and the Istanbul Modern. While it’s heartening to see so...
The horn maestro Radovan Vlatković returns to Urla for the 2017 UMA masterclasses
By Berrin Torolsan and John Scott | September 14, 2017
The great Croatian horn-player Radovan Vlatković is giving the first of this year’s masterclasses at the Urla Music Academy (UMA). Four days of happy music-making culminate in a concert at 7pm on Saturday evening (September 17). Tickets are free (and donations towards a wonderful musical project most welcome).
Okan Akbaş...
Posted in
Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
Heading for the Golden Horn to catch the rowing races
By Emily Arauz | September 8, 2017
The Balkan Rowing Championship takes place in Haliç this year on September 9–10. This will be a ‘Junior’ championship (18 and below). Consequently, the Haliç will be closed to the ship traffic for this event. Rowing races are ideally followed by bicycles or at the finish area but unfortunately following...
A revealing relief, must-try Turkish dishes and the perfect day in Istanbul
By Emma Harper | April 26, 2017
In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month (or two, in this case). A relief uncovered by chance in eastern Anatolia has led archaeologists to revise the history of Harput, reports
Hurriyet Daily News. Subsequent examinations...
Posted in
Archaeology, Culinary Arts, Film, Music & Performing Arts, Obituaries
By Cornucopia | April 20, 2017
Very sad news. The great John Freely passed away early yesterday morning. We have lost a cherished friend of the Bosphorus, author of more than 50 books, with at least 50 more ready to roll, and one of Irish nature’s great raconteurs. John was the incomparable bard of old Stamboul....
Posted in
Obituaries
David French, the former director of the British Institution at Ankara, who died on Friday (pictured right), was a leading figure in British archaeological research in Turkey for six decades. For just over a quarter of a century, he was Ankara Director of the Institute, then an exclusively archaeological body....
Posted in
Archaeology, Obituaries
An Anglo-Turkish moment: JF Lewis’s portrait (almost certainly) of the great Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson
By John Scott | March 17, 2017
This witty portrait by the Orientalist painter John Frederick Lewis can be found this weekend at BADA, the British Antique Dealers’ Association’s annual fair in Chelsea (March 15–21). In Guy Peppiatt Fine Art’s catalogue notes, the art historian and JF Lewis-expert Briony Llewellyn describes the sitter in Turkish costume as...
By John Scott | November 11, 2016
It was with enormous sadness that we learned of the passing of the great Byzantine historian Anthony Bryer. The funeral service was held yesterday at St Peter's Church, Harborne, in Birmingham. Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, or simply Bryer, as he was known to all,...
Posted in
History, Obituaries
In conversation with the artist and cartoonist Cem Dinlenmiş about his exhibition ‘You’ll Know When You See It’ at x-ist
By Emma Harper | February 23, 2016
When it comes to recent developments in Turkey, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. One of the best at finding the humour in what would otherwise make you weep is Cem Dinlenmiş, the artist and cartoonist whose weekly ‘Anything Goes’ (‘Her Şey Olur’) column in
Penguen pointedly...
From The Paper Diaries 2015, by Deborah Wargon
By Malika Browne | November 25, 2015
A work by Deborah Wargon at her recent Istanbul exhibition. Photograph: Monica Fritz In a house in Balat on a quiet street just past St Mary of the Mongols, a fish is pinned to the wall above a bed. ‘My friend, the owner of this house, tells me this house...
Posted in
Contemporary Art
By Victoria Khroundina | August 21, 2015
If you’ve been following the blog, you will know I have been travelling these past few weeks. Last weekend I finally got around to visiting Cappadocia, and out of all the places I have been to in Turkey this awed me the most. The otherworldly landscape peppered with fairy chimneys,...
Posted in
Nature, Photography, Travel
By Victoria Khroundina | August 14, 2015
If you want to get up close and personal with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast there’s no better way to do so than by boat. You can stay in a town such as Fethiye, Kaş, Kalkan or Antalya, and take daily boat trips or, better still, hire your own boat and spend...
Posted in
Modern Art, Photography, Travel
By Cornucopia UK | March 20, 2015
Joobin Bekhrad’s moving tribute to Yaşar Kemal in
Reorient magazine perfectly encapsulates the legacy the novelist left not only within Turkey’s literary history, but for storytelling in general. Bekhrad lovingly calls Kemal, who passed away last month, a ‘hero’. Writing the piece in his Toronto apartment, Bekhrad is surrounded by Kemal’s...
Posted in
Literature, Obituaries
A tribute by Andrew Finkel
By THE CORNUCOPIA BLOG | July 9, 2014
I walk most days past Aslanyataği Street in the Cihangir neighbourhood of Istanbul – which translates as the Lion’s Den. It is a tiny loop of an alleyway and I know it better for a particular building called Jones Apt which was home to the Mango family, scions of the...
Posted in
Obituaries
