Page 61

o CHAPTER IX.-PLATES 36, 37, 38.
TURKISH ORNAMENT.
PLATE XXXVI.
1, 2, 3, 16, 18. From a Fountain at Pera, Constantinople.  10, 11, 17, 19,
21. From the Yeni D'jami, or new mosque,
4. From the Mosque of Sultan Achmet, Constantinople.        Constantinople.
6, 6, 7, 8, 13. From Tombs at Constantinople.
9, 12, 14, 15. From the Tomb of Sultan Soliman I., Constan- 20, 22. From
a Fountain at Tophana, Constantinople.
tinople.
PLATE XXXVII.
1, 2, 6, 7, 8. From the Yeni D'jami, Constantinople.  4, 5. Ornaments in
Spandrils under the Dome of the Mosque
S. Rosace in the Centre of the Dome of the Mosque of        of Soliman I.,
Constantinople.
Soliman I., Constantinople.
PLATE XXXVIII.
Portion of the Decoration of the Dome of the Tomb of Soliman I., Constantinople.
THE architecture of the Turks, as seen at Constantinople, is in all its structural
features mainly
based upon the early Byzantine monuments; their system of ornamentation,
however, is a modifi-
cation of the Arabian, bearing about the same relation to this style as Elizabethan
ornament does to
Italian Renaissance.
When the art of one people is adopted by another having the same religion,
but differing in
natural character and instincts, we should expect to find a deficiency in
all those qualities in which
the borrowing people are inferior to their predecessors.  And thus it is
with the art of the Turks as
compared with the art of the Arabs; there is the same difference in the amount
of elegance and
refinement in the art of the'two people as exists in their national character.
We are, however, inclined to believe that the Turks have rarely themselves
practised the arts;
but that they have rather commanded the execution than been themselves executants.
       All their
mosques and public buildings present a mixed style.      On the same building,
side by side with
ornaments derived from Arabian and Persian floral ornaments, we find debased
Roman and Renaissance
details, leading to the belief that these buildings have mostly been executed
by artists differing in
religion from themselves. In more recent times, the Turks have been the first
of the Mohammedan
R                                    61