Restorations at a historic building in central Istanbul, which was used by the U.S. as an embassy and consulate building for nearly a century, have unveiled a unique example of "censorship," after nude drawings surfaced from under thick wall paint. During restorations of the building, workers came across “erotic” murals when they removed thick paint from the walls. The U.S. consulate left the building in the Tepebaşı neighborhood of Istanbul’s Beyoğlu districtin 2003 in a bid to move to a more secure location following the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks. However, property developer Serdar Bilgili recently hired the facility for 51 years to transform the venue into a branch of the private members' club, Soho House, after which he made the sensational discovery.
The building contains a classical facade, grand stairway lined with frescoes and paintings, upstairs rooms covered in classical subjects, ceilings of Greater Hall with depict mythological figures such as Diana, Neptune, Muses, Graces and Bacchantes. There are two other buildings situated on the site, Annex (known formerly as the Constantinople Club) built in late 1800's and Chancery built in 1910 which is adjacent to the Palazzo Corpi.
Mavi Boncuk |
In the year 1830, a young Genoese shipowner named Ignazio Corpi established himself at Constantinople with his mother, sister and one or more brothers. Signor Corpi and his family prospered, becoming prominent in local charitable activities on behalf of indigent and elderly Latin Catholics. The Corpis were instrumental in building the local Italian hospital, which functions to this day. In 1873, Signor Corpi called the architect Giacomo Leoni [1] from Italy, and charged him with building a palatial residence that would bear the Corpi family’s name. Georgio Stampa, another architect, who worked on the British and Persian embassies and other important buildings in Constantinople at that time, apparently also took part in Palazzo Corpi’s construction. Most of the building materials were imported from Italy — doors and window frames of rosewood from Piemonte, and marble flooring and facings from Carrara. The ground-floor reception hall was remarkable for the beauty of frescoes representing mythological scenes, while frescoes over the grand stairway and Great Hall upstairs represented Bacchic and other classical subjects. To the magnificent frescoes were added finely etched glasswork, inlaid parquet floors, elegant fireplaces and other exquisite artistic/architectural features too numerous to mention.
All the frescoes were executed by Italian artists brought to Constantinople by the architect Leoni. Sadly, during a "renovation" in 1937, the walls and ceilings on the ground floor were plastered and/or painted over. Left untouched on the ceiling of the upstairs Great Hall, but vulnerable to annual accumulations of Istanbul grime, were depictions of Diana, Neptune, eight Muses, various Graces, Bacchantes and other mythological figures. These decorations remained largely hidden until 1992, when a series of expert restorations undertaken by post management with the cooperation of Turkish artisans and the Department’s Office of Overseas Buildings Operations gradually returned them to their original splendor.
It is recorded that 99,000 Ottoman gold liras (about $7 million in today’s dollars) were expended on Palazzo Corpi’s construction, which spanned the entire decade of the 1870s. The building was barely finished when Ignazio Corpi died, and the Palazzo was inherited by his nephews, who rented it to the American government starting in 1882. The circumstances under which the U.S. government assumed outright possession of Palazzo Corpi in 1907 make a fascinating and dramatic story in its own right.
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[1] Giacomo Leoni (1686 – June 8, 1746), also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of FlorentineRenaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism inEnglish architecture, beginning in earnest around 1720. Also loosely referred to as Georgian, this style is rooted in Italian Renaissance architecture.
Having previously worked in Düsseldorf, Leoni arrived in England, where he was to make his name, in 1714, aged 28. His fresh, uncluttered designs, with just a hint of baroque flamboyance, brought him to the attention of prominent patrons of the arts.