Mattheys Mansion
In the past, in middle school, I think, in Turkish class, our teacher had us make a small carpet motif. We would mount nails on small boards and make small carpets by tying knots. We were impressed at that time by the huge carpets that emerged from such small knots. For us, hand-woven carpets are an art rather than an old work. For this reason, I would like to introduce you to the Mattheys Mansion and Arkas Sanat Bornova’s “Century Anatolian Carpets between 16-19 century” .
Arkas Holding emphasizes that it opened this mansion and exhibition with the vision of “remembering our past” and refers to the 100th Anniversary of the Republic. The most important reason for this is that Hortense Wood, the owner of Mattheys Mansion at that time, hosted Atatürk in this mansion and, in Wood’s own words, the future of the Republic was discussed under this roof. Along with its historical importance, the aesthetic gate that greeted us when we arrived at the mansion, the carefully arranged garden and the architecture of the mansion amazed us. Besides the exhibition inside, we are sure that you will want to spend long hours in the garden, like us. Before we even visited the exhibition, we thought, “We should come and sit in the garden of this mansion from time to time.” We were particularly impressed by the sculptor in the small decorative garden pool. While we were sitting there and watching the statue, the soothing sounds of water took us into many scenarios and stories about the statue. Additionally, the cafe in the garden of the mansion offers a great opportunity to come just for the garden. The layout of the mansion’s garden has very impressive details. The mini golf courses are also an example of this. At the same time, the miniature mansions in the garden of the mansion remind and introduce us to the Bornova mansions that we should never forget. The restoration work of the mansion is headed by Arkas Art Consultant and Architect Niko Filidis, who also carries out all architectural restoration works of Arkas.
Niko Filidis states that during the restoration that started in 2015, they took care to restore the mansion to its original state and present it as a structure suitable for Bornova mansions. We noticed that they paid the greatest attention to the garden of the mansion. During our trip, we learned that Mattheys Gardens played an important role. Elaborate gardens were at least as important as the building itself in Bornova mansions. The most distinctive feature of Mattheys Mansion at this point was its arched main entrance, famous for its beauty, surrounded by purple wisteria lilac flowers. When we entered the garden gate, a path with trees on both sides led towards the mansion. It was obvious that care was taken to protect the plane tree, one of the symbolic trees of the garden, and many other trees. Coming to the building part, the pink color tone of the building, the embroidery on its corners, the flower pots on both sides and the carefully crafted steel bell in front of the entrance door were quite fascinating.
After passing through the “Century Anatolian Carpets between 16-19 century ‘’ exhibition, and fascinated by the architecture and garden of the mansion, we come to the exhibition inside the mansion. Before visiting the exhibition, we examined its fascinating interior architecture. Afterwards, before the exhibition, we went into a room inside and watched an introductory documentary about Anatolian carpets. The documentary was very nice, we enjoyed watching it. It contained recordings and interviews that took us to Anatolia. In this sense, the time we watched was productive. A selection of valuable carpets from the Arkas Carpet Collection are exhibited inside the mansion, in order to convey their contribution to the introduction of Western Anatolian carpet weaving to the world. In the selection compiled from the Arkas Collection, which is among the world’s leading collections, we saw Anatolian Carpets produced between the 16th and 19th centuries in Western and Central Anatolia, in the Uşak, Çanakkale, Bergama, Konya, Karapınar, Akhisar, Gördes, Kula and Milas regions.
The exhibition consists of hand-woven carpets from a different region and period in each room. While traveling, we both went back to those periods and tried to interpret the patterns and culture of each region. Our admiration for the art of carpet weaving increased once again while visiting this wonderful collection created by Lucien Arkas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arkas Holding, by enriching the carpets inherited from his family with the antique carpets he bought since the 90s. These hand-made carpets, which reflect a unique blend of Byzantine, Seljuk, Timurid and Safavid elements with the local traditions of Anatolia in the collection of 75 pieces, were used in the Ottoman Palaces at the time, aroused admiration in Western countries and were used in the paintings of Western artists. Carpets woven especially in Uşak and its surroundings reached Europe from the port of Izmir. We were pleased to be able to obtain detailed information about each carpet in the exhibition, thanks to the barcodes on the tags of the carpets.
It is also very meaningful to open such an exhibition and the mansion together. We definitely agree with Lucien Arkas’ desire to make Izmir an art city. “Art” suits Izmir very well and this suit should continue. This exhibition, which will be exhibited indefinitely at Mattheys Mansion, Arkas Sanat Bornova, will be updated every three years. If you are in Izmir or if you happen to be in Izmir, we definitely recommend you to visit it.
With love.
Damla A./Ece K.