''Mihrab'' ( tr, Mihrap), also known as ''Genesis'' (french: La Genèse) is a 1901 painting by Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey.

History

The painting was first exhibited in May 1903 at the

Royal Academy Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sc ...

in London under the French name ''La Genèse'', which has been interpreted as a reference to the subject's possible pregnancy. It is unclear if the name came from the organizers or Osman Hamdi Bey himself. The present location of the painting is unknown.

Description

The painting depicts a woman wearing a bright yellow

decollete Cleavage is the narrow depression or hollow between the breasts of a woman. The Superior (anatomy), superior portion of cleavage may be accentuated by clothing such as a low-cut neckline that exposes the division, and often the term is used to de ...

dress and sitting on a Qur'an lectern. Behind the woman is a tiled

mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...

(a niche indicating the direction of the

Kaaba The Kaaba (, ), also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah ( ar, ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit=Honored Ka'bah, links=no, translit=al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah), is a building at the c ...

in Mecca). On the floor at her feet are several large religious books strewn around. There is an incense burner in the painting's foreground. The identity of the female figure is disputed: it has been variously identified as the painter's wife or his daughter Leyla. Mustafa Cezar, Osman's biographer, has also hypothesised that the model was the daughter of an Armenian housemaid.

Analysis

The woman is sitting in the Rehal, where the Qur'an is usually placed; she has displaced the Qur'an and is now herself the focus of attention in this painting. She has also turned her back away from the prayer niche, and thus also has turned her back against Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. The move to a more secular focus is shown by the woman's European dress which contrasts greatly with what would be expected in a mosque. This painting, like other paintings by Osman Hamdi Bey, comments on the museum culture of his time. All of the items which we see surrounding the woman were part of the Ottoman Imperial Museum's collections. The museum collected religious items but by doing so secularised them, making them into objects which are valued for their aesthetic rather than religious qualities. The painting has also been seen as blasphemic, feminist and anti-Islam, as the woman is trampling over religious books and sitting where the Qur'an should be; as Dr Edhem Eldem, a professor of history says: "it is probably more difficult to imagine a more offensive way of attacking the very foundations of Islamic tradition in the name of promoting female independence and autonomy."

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihrab Paintings by Osman Hamdi Bey 1901 paintings Orientalist paintings Portraits of women