Sabancı University's Sakıp Sabancı Museum hosted a magnificent selection of works from the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. The exhibition brought together 75 outstanding and rare manuscripts and printed books representing the art of the book around the world in addition to 35 works of art consisting of orientalist paintings, Ottoman fabrics and Ottoman ceramics that are reminders of Calouste Gulbenkian's Ottoman origins.
The books in The Art of the Book from East to West section of the exhibition formed a rich anthology of works representing several cultures. They ranged from a collection of ancient poetry illustrated with a watercolor by Auguste Renoir from the library of Victor Hugo and a 15th century Shahnama copied and illustrated in Herat to an illuminated Book of Hours produced in mediaeval Europe and a Book of Insects illustrated with woodcuts by the great Japanese artist Utamaro. All the books featured bindings of incomparable beauty.
Memories of the Ottoman World presented art works that reflect Calouste Gulbenkian's life-long ties with his birthplace of Ottoman Turkey and the passion for art that increasingly absorbed him. Born in Üsküdar, an outlying district of Istanbul on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, Gulbenkian became a business tycoon and a legend of his time.
The exhibition was made possible by BankEuropa and Turgut Pharmaceutical Company.
