Brief notes on William James Smith’s architectural references to greek revival at taşkışla and dolmabahçe seyir köşkü (Istanbul)

As an architect of 19^th century Neoclassicism, Smith designed two imperial buildings in Ottoman Istanbul, the portico of Taşkışla and Dolmabahçe Seyir Köşkü both displaying Greek revival references. The forms of the architectural elements of the Taşkışla portico can be considered within the conventions of the ancient Greek Ionic order as it was then known to the academics and designers. Obviously the publications of the Society of Dilettanti were highly influential among designer circles as intended by the members of the Society and also by the authors of the publications; so that they provided a starting point for Smith’s design as well. The formal features of the studied part of the Dolmabahçe Seyir Köşkü point out that the inspiration of the architect was based on the thesaurus of a group of ancient buildings depicted in Stuart and Revett’s 18^th century publication on “Antiquities of Athens”. Smith manifestly repeated the column capitals of the Tower of the Winds in Athens at the Dolmabahçe design; in addition, the form of the Lesbian cymatium seen at the entablature of the pavilion is also most probably borrowed from the same publication. Further, at both designs it has been possible to show that Smith was inspired by certain Vitruvian and Palladian rules for proportions. The assumption prior to the research that Smith must have moved around the Vitruvian-Palladian systems with recognizable references to Greek revival architecture has been verified to a considerable extent.