Turkey: Decoupage representation of a cockerel and a tethered hawk. The mirror writing at the top of the picture is the name Muhammad in Arabic. Miniature painting, late 17th century. The Ottoman Empire's interest in decoupage work traces back to the second half of the 16th century. This special technique was mastered right into the 19th century by a few specialised artists, but the output was miniscule compared to miniature painting. In this example, real feathers were used together with embossed carboard for the cock's feet and comb.
Decoupage (or découpage) is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and so on. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the 'stuck on' appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. The Ottoman court’s interest in decoupage work goes back to the second half of the 16th century. This special technique was mastered right into the 19th century by a few specialized artists, and in contrast to miniature painting, the output was fairly small.
Size: 3502px × 4689px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 17th, arabic, art, arts, asia, asian, bird, calligraphy, cardboard, century, chicken, cock, cockerel, decoupage, east, eastern, empire, europe, european, feather, garden, hawk, historical, history, image, images, islam, islamic, letter, middle, miniature, mirror, motif, muhammad, muslim, ottoman, painting, paintings, pictures, prophet, rooster, script, scripts, turkey, turkish, writing
