In addition to their architectural qualities, the houses built in Sinasos during the late Ottoman Empire also stand out with their fireplaces, storage areas, ceiling rosettes, architectural sculptural decorations consisting of various motifs, and wall paintings. These decorative elements, which add an aesthetic identity to the spaces, provide insight into the worldview, taste, and wealth of the homeowners. This insight is undoubtedly most evident in the wall paintings.
Before examining the wall paintings, many of which are found in mansions in Mustafapaşa, a brief look at the modernization process of Ottoman painting reveals that Ottoman painting entered a new phase from the second quarter of the 18th century onwards. Until this period, pictorial representation was largely limited to explanatory texts in handwritten books. The changes that began with the Tulip Era and were followed by European-style education also reflected in daily life, and the effects of this are seen in Ottoman painting. In Istanbul, there has been a significant increase in the number of civil architectural works, and a new form of decoration, such as wall paintings, has emerged in the interior ornamentation of these works (Renda, 2002). In the 19th century, wall paintings can be found in many residences in Nevşehir and its region, particularly in Ürgüp and its affiliated village of Mustafapaşa.
Wall Paintings in the Mansions of Mustafapaşa:
It is noteworthy that the wall paintings in the houses of Mustafapaşa have characteristics close to Western style. Many of the paintings are seen as products of high-quality workmanship and knowledge. The paintings, which appear in a variety of forms such as panoramic landscapes (real or imaginary), figures within landscapes, single figures, and mythological scenes, mostly apply the rules of perspective and attempt to create light and shadow effects. When we look at the Ottoman wall paintings of this period in general, we see that the majority are landscape paintings, and figurative depictions are much less common, mostly given as patches within the landscape without much detail. However, when we examine the Mustafapaşa examples, especially around the figures, it is noteworthy that they are depicted either as portraits consisting solely of figures, within a thematic narrative, or within a landscape.
Another piece of information that comes to mind regarding the materials used in the paintings in the village is that the paint and other materials in the wall paintings were brought from Istanbul, the Ottoman capital. The Greeks of Sinasos played a leading role in the paint trade in Istanbul from the 1800s onwards. Although there was a small-scale paint production industry in Kayseri, which is located a short distance from Mustafapaşa, it is stated that it was not strong enough to compete with the merchants of Sinasos (Roides, 1986).
Painters:
Another characteristic of the wall paintings in the village is that the name of the painter is often indicated. Many houses in the village have the signature of Kostis Meletiadis, one of the most important painters of the village, on their wall paintings. Rizos’s manuscripts contain information that Meletiadis, who was also a very good clarinet player, went to Italy and received training there while he was working at a caviar shop in Unkapanı, Istanbul for a period. Roides, in his work on the houses in Sinasos, states that the European influence in the wall paintings in the houses may be related to Meletiadis.
Another painter who was active in the village during the Ottoman period, about whom we have much less information, is Georgios.
It is stated that the painter in question painted images of saints and was a master of icons, while Meletiadis preferred to paint landscapes (Balta, 2005; Roides, 1986). This painter, whose name we find on the wall paintings of some houses and some churches in the surrounding area, must be Georgios Iordanidis.
In addition to these private residences in the village, wall paintings are also encountered in churches or monasteries (for example, the Basileios Church in Beydere). However, since the paintings in civil architectural examples and those in religious buildings differ greatly in terms of purpose, content, and source, these two branches should be evaluated separately. Monumental examples of religious architecture have followed a different developmental trajectory than civil examples.
