Review: Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants, Mathias Énard
By Safir Kaylan
Last January, just a few days before my trip to Istanbul, I came across an interview in the LRB with the novelist Mathias Énard about his last translated book in English: Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants. After listening to the interview, my suspended state of wanting to read the book— here and now— soon propelled me to look for a Turkish translation at Ataturk airport. Distracted with reunions, I gave up the chase.
Months later, I found out Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants was available at my local library. Yesterday, I read it in one sitting.
The writer constructs the story, part as a legend and part out of his extensive research from the libraries of Venice around and about Michelangelo, the genius Italian sculptor. Michelangelo was formally invited over to the Istanbul of the day by Sultan Bayezid II in order to oversee the construction of a bridge over the Golden Horn. The writer turns the story into a narrative of love, reflection and other geo-social and political pieces of the moment. Michelangelo’s assumed state of artistic mind in a foreign land and his creative posture and temperament is the part that attracts me most to this book. The Italian sculptor’s artistic process in the imagination of the writer is very relevant to the main plot.
During the interview mentioned above, Mathias Énard talks about time, language and identity. He also points out the meeting points between the East and West during the Ottoman times, especially through the arts, which is evidentally how Ottomans knew of Michelangelo. The invitation by the Sultan was recorded in Michelangelo’s biography; but there is no solid evidence of an an actual journey to Istanbul. Mathias Énard, in this interview, however, cheekily adds “I am sure Michelangelo was in Istanbul.”
This book is a challenge to the imagination. Relying upon imagination to write a story about any subject requires a deeper awareness and appreciation of the topic. The book includes perceptions about the history, place, time and identity. What makes this book worth reading beyond the historical facts, is the way that the Italian sculptor was envisioned in the middle of the ancient city of Istanbul and narrated through the sculptor’s own eyes and mind. The visual process, reading of the historical architecture through the eyes of an accomplished artist and about the process of creation intrigued me more than other aspects of the books such as politics, rituals and traditions. Not that these subjects were not vividly told by the writer, but these subjects are not within my strengths to fully discuss in accordance with the full merits of the experience. I am sure each reader will find their own lens of interest with which to zone in upon the specific time and space of the story and enjoy it intensely. The intensity comes from our point of interest, where we can penetrate into the narrative to go deeper, for richer experiences.
A number of lines from the book influenced me more than the topics, as I wanted to get into the head of the famous sculptor and experience his artistic process alongside him. Visual perception, an artistic eye and mental state are my main concerns. They are like testimony to bring clarity not only to the artist himself, but also to the readers who end up getting behind the scenes to discover how and why a genius creates or fails to create a masterpiece. For instance, the inner entanglement of an artist to discover his or her true calling may become a struggle. When we read that “Michelangelo does not draw bridges. He draws horses, men and astragals,” I am firmly convinced that an artist who is not true to himself and does not hear the calling of his own true voice is destined to stumble.
An artist’s process is a web of complicated observations, emotions and underlying creative forces. Having sculpted David by then, Michelangelo thinks about the bridge: “this work must be unique, a masterpiece of grace, like David..” The conception of the idea sounds promising. However, I am also convinced that the concept usually exceeds the execution.
When Michelangelo contemplates beauty: “Beauty comes from abandoning the refuge of the old forms for the uncertainty of the present.” writes Mathias Énard. The definition of beauty changes for the artist. Work of arts are fluid. Michelangelo, the artist —not the architect Michelangelo— questions the beauty of the architectural forms.
Artists in general are curious; artists notice the light, colors and forms; materials, textures and surfaces. Michelangelo, as an artist, observes the light of the Sultan’s library and discovers “the secret of the miraculous harmony,” states Mathias Énard, assuming this is how a sculptor, an artist,would react to light that shapes and forms.
“He misses marble.” says the writer. I think materials are an extension of an artist.
Regarding the source of an artist’s ideas, I would say they percolate and brew over time, exactly the way the writer mentions in the middle of the book— Michelangelo is still waiting for the idea of an initial sketch. “Michelangelo glances over the landscape disappearing into the night, without making anything out but the lights of the towers and a few reflections on the water.” Finally, at one “significant” moment, an image of the bridge comes to him. “A bridge that has risen up out of the night, molded from the material of the city.”
Mathias Énard brings another voice into the story, a third dimension, a reflection upon how the voice is open to interpretation. I think what the voice says is more significant than whose it belongs to:
“You did not come here to know me, you came to build a bridge, for money, for God knows what else, and you will leave exactly the same, unchanged, you will return to your destiny.” and continues: “If you do not touch me you will remain the same.”… “ Locked up in your world you see nothing but shadows, unfinished shapes, lands to be conquered.”
I gather Michelangelo’s heart is not in it.
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Safir Kaylan is a mosaicist with a background in color, material and design.
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