Album of Photographs of Views of the Interior of the Ottoman Military Museum in the Former Church of St. Irene, Constantinople (Vues de Sainte Irène, Constantinople)
Photographs by the firm of Abdullah Frères (1858–99), official photographers to the Ottoman court, provide a visual record of Istanbul and its monuments in the late nineteenth century. The present album contains thirty-three images of the exterior and interior of the former Byzantine church of St. Irene, which served from the late fifteenth century as the imperial Ottoman arsenal and from the end of the nineteenth century as the Turkish Military Museum. The photographs provide invaluable documentation of the arsenal’s displays of armor and weapons, including examples of Mamluk, Persian, and Ottoman origin, as well as some European arms, which today remain unpublished and largely unstudied.
Artwork Details
- Title: Album of Photographs of Views of the Interior of the Ottoman Military Museum in the Former Church of St. Irene, Constantinople (Vues de Sainte Irène, Constantinople)
- Photographer: Abdullah Frères (Ottoman, 1858–1899)
- Date: 1891
- Culture: Turkish
- Medium: Albumen prints, paper, leather, textile, gold
- Dimensions: L. 17 3/4 in. (45.1 cm); H. 13 in. (33.0 cm); W. 2 3/8 in. (6.0 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of Howard Ricketts, in memory of collectors Roy and Neil Cole, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.649
- Curatorial Department: Arms and Armor
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Abdullah Frères
1860s–70s
Turkish
dated 1806
Turkish
A.H. 1242/ 1826–27 CE
Turkish
dated A.H. 1241/1825–26 CE
Persian, Qajar
ca. 1800
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