Template:POTD/2020-10-05
The Tortoise Trainer is an oil-on-canvas painting created by the Turkish artist Osman Hamdi Bey between 1906 and 1907. It depicts a dervish contemplating several tortoises roaming the floor of an upper-storey room in what may be the Green Mosque in Bursa. He wears a skullcap wrapped round with a sash, and a long, red robe with embroidered border. In his left hand he holds a ney and on his back hangs a small kettledrum; he is attempting to train the animals with these musical instruments rather than by the use of force. In the painting, Hamdi satirises the slow and ineffective attempts at reform in the Ottoman Empire. The work is now located in the Pera Museum in Istanbul.Painting credit: Osman Hamdi Bey