Although paper marbling is a common art form drawing great interest from around the world today, it also has a long-standing and elegant place among traditional Turkish art. Paper marbling can be simply described as painting on water. Called “ebru” in Turkish, this beautiful decorative art is created by sprinkling and brushing color pigments onto a pan of oily water. The artists create spellbinding patterns with colorful pigments and then transfer these patterns to fabric or paper.
The detailed history of paper marbling remains unknown, but historical sources show that some works were created with similar techniques in China, dating back to the eighth century. These works are named “liu sha shien.” Other similar examples have also been seen in Japanese culture under the name of “suminagashi” since the 12th century. Some paper marbling pieces were also produced in Central Asia and Iran under the name of “ebre” or “ebri” in the later centuries. This proves that paper marbling, like paper, spread from east to west using the Silk Road and other trade routes.
Following its spread across Anatolia, paper marbling reached its peak during the Ottoman period with skilled artists’ new forms and improved techniques. The whole empire was like an art workshop between the 14th and 19th centuries, and Ottomans were already practicing calligraphy when paper marbling offered an alternative decoration for them in the 14th and 15th centuries. They used this new art form to ornament the background or blank spaces of scripts. Turning the scripts into eye-pleasing works of art, the decorative paper marbling pushed them into the realm of magnificent creations. The concept of colored paper was used in bookbinding as an accessory as well, and marbling became a traditional technique in Anatolia.
At the end of the 16th century, European travelers visiting Istanbul took examples of paper marbling home. This art form first became popular among Europeans in Germany, then in France and Italy as "marble paper" or "Turkish marble paper." It was then produced in the European countries as well. Paper marbling, which also spread to England and the Americas over time, has naturally gained new twists along the way in each country.
The oldest paper marbling examples of the Ottomans belongs to Şebek Mehmed Efendi. Dating back to 1595, these very first examples are now kept at the Museum of Topkapı Palace. The art of marbling was cherished by masters Hatip Mehmed Efendi and Ethem Efendi during the last period of the Ottoman Empire. During the Republic period in the country, this distinguished art flourished in the hands of artists such as Necmeddin Okyay and Mustafa Düzgünman. For example, Okyay invented scripted marbling, which can be described as Islamic calligraphy done through marbling techniques, along with flower marbling, while Düzgünman produced flower variations in more realistic forms and introduced the daisy technique. This art is being passed down to future generations through the works of contemporary marbling artists, such as Fuat Başar and Alparslan Babaoğlu.
According to masters, paper marbling is just like cooking, and it is impossible to give an exact recipe. This art has its own materials and application methods, and all the materials and tools used in the art of marbling are prepared by the artist. The process starts with a mixture of water with gum tragacanth. This causes the water to thicken so it does not dissolve the paint. After pouring this water into a tray, it is ready for the dyes to be sprinkled on top.
All of the dyes are made from natural ingredients with traditional methods. The artist dips the brushes into the liquid dyes and sprinkles them onto the solution in the tray. Special marbling brushes or sticks are used to shape or create patterns in the nebula-looking layers of dyes. When the image is ready, a sheet of paper of the required size (sometimes fabric or any other object) is carefully placed on top of the floating work of art. The image is transferred to the desired surface in this way.
This traditional Turkish art was also recognized by UNESCO and added to the United Nations' list of world cultural heritage in 2014.
