GUDENUS

İSTANBUL PANORAMASI

Baron de Philipp François Von GUDENUS (1710-1783)

Colored copper engraving, 412 x 59 cm

ca. 1740

Gudenus, who was known to be a good pattern master, served as a clerk at the Austrian embassy in Istanbul in 1740. During his time in Istanbul, he drew a number of pictures, including views of Istanbul from different angles, Turkish types and the Bosphorus map.

Most of the painters who came to Istanbul for different reasons at different times for centuries drew the unique and fascinating topography of the city as a panorama. Panoramas are “sources that give the interesting topography of the city”.

This picture consists of 9 plans attached to each other. The dense settlement texture of the city is enlivened with cypress and other trees and intertwined with buildings. While the Kasımpaşa region has relatively less greenery, the hills behind the Asian coast are barren, and large areas behind tree clusters that can be called groves are empty. In fact, there are no settlements other than Üsküdar and Kadıköy neighborhoods located on the coast. Karacaahmet Cemetery is indicated by a series of cypress trees stretching from Üsküdar to Kadıköy. Behind Sarayburnu, the Islands and opposite shores can be seen in silhouette. While there are many boats, barges and sailboats in the sea, commercial boats and royal boats are clustered towards the entrance of the Golden Horn, especially in front of Tophane port and Sarayburnu.

This panorama of Istanbul, looking from the Pera/Beyoğlu ridges, stretching from Üsküdar to Kasımpaşa, should be considered as a very valuable visual document about the city and buildings of the period in terms of commitment to facts. It is also interesting and important in terms of showing the traditional wooden residential architecture in the city.