Two Houses With Wall Paintings in Mytilene in the Context of Wall Paintings from Western Anatolia to the Islands

The subject of this article is the wall paintings decorating the two houses on the island of Mytilene in Greece. These aforementioned wall paintings have a great similarity in terms of subject and style with a group of wall paintings seen in Western Anatolia in the first half of 19th century. In addition to the similarities, it is also important to point out where and how a particular style developed within itself transported within the Ottoman boundaries in the date of its establishment.The paintings are located at theHouse of Vareltzidenas in Petra and the House of Giannakos in Molova. In both houses, four sea landscapes with similar views and an imaginary Istanbul panaroma are depicted. A building is placed at the center of uninterrupted sea views.The structures are two-storied and two-sided buildings surrounded by trees on a wide platform. Various buildings such as towered or towerish structures/buildings, houses, mosques and passage structures were painted. The paintings of the buildings such as Zeytinliova Kara Osmano？lu Mosque, Manisa Sultan Mosque, Urla Kapan Mosque, Birgi？ak？rA？a Mansion, BirgiSand？kemino？ullar？ House, ？zmir ？ad？rvanalt？ Mosque in Western Anatolia serve as examples of this painting group.In addition to the stereotyped forms in the buildings; the sea and sky given by their color tones, the ships traveling in the sea and the birds flying in the sky have the common features that resemble the landscape compositions in these structures.The panoramas of Istanbul, seen in both houses, have similar characters with the monumental Istanbul panoramas, which are shown in three land pieces in Western Anatolia. The Istanbul paintings, which were portrayed with great passion within the borders of the Empire, are generally considered to be the symbol of longing for the capital city or the symbol of Ottoman-style life. However, the most interesting attitude exhibited in the imaginary Istanbul panorama in the Petra Vareltzidenas House is that the city is illustrated as deprived of mosques that define and characterize the city. This situation can be considered as an ideological message. In several other structures in Greece, it is known that Istanbul views are illustrated without mosques, which are the religious symbols of the city. Although the Istanbul panaroma depicted in the MolovaGiannokos House is considered realistic than the Istanbul panaroma in the Petra Vareltzidenas House, buildings, which are not possible to take place in the same painting, are united together, which suggests that the artist may have used the existing prototypes.