77. Today in 1920s Turkey: 16 April 1925 (The Cartoonist’s Armoury Part 2 of 3)

(Cartoon by Ratip Tahir Burak, Zümrüdüanka or “Phoenix,” 16 April 1925, no. 223, page 1.)

Comments:
In the previous post I discussed one of three cartoons by the same artist that were featured alongside one another on the same page of Zümrüdüanka. The above cartoon is the second of these three front-page cartoons by Ratip Tahir Burak to be considered in this three-part-series.

This cartoon consists of a man-faced lion head-butting a soccer ball and as such, it presents the opportunity to discuss several of the “weapons” in Gombrich’s “Artist’s Armoury.” As a reminder, here are the six major categories of techniques used by cartoonists to “load up” their images with layers of meaning (as outlined in Gombrich, Ernst Hans. “The Cartoonist’s Armoury.” In: Meditations on a Hobby Horse, and Other Essays on the Theory of Art, 127-142. London: Phaidon Press, 1994.).

• Figures of Speech
• Condensation and Comparison
• Portrait Caricature
• The (Political) Bestiary
• Natural Metaphors
• Powerful Contrasts

In addition to the artist’s signature located by the lion’s tail, the cartoon includes a brief caption that reads “The Lion of All Soccer Players” (Futbolcuların Aslanı). The lion is traditionally the animal mascot of the Istanbul soccer team, Galatasaray. And sure enough, the team’s coat of arms with its initials (G.S. or غ.س.) adorns the right leg of the lion. Thus, it is safe to assume that this man-lion represents a soccer player from the Galatasaray team. Established in 1905, Galatasaray is one of Turkey (and Istanbul’s) oldest and most successful sports clubs.

Not being a soccer expert myself, I turned to google for more answers. I searched “Galatasaray 1925” to find their team photograph, a copy of which was available on Wikipedia:

Source: Wikipedia: 1925-26 Galatasaray S.K. season

I proceeded to match the facial features of the lion in the cartoon with those of the team members in the photograph. Since the lion is rendered with a human face because it represents an actual person it is safe to assume these facial features are exaggerated but consistent with reality. So from among the 22 faces in the photograph, I was looking for someone with black, slicked-back hair, prominent eyebrows, and a long nose. Immediately I identified the man in kneeling row, second from the left to have these features… then I noticed the caption below the picture, which read: “Galatasaray football team in 1925-26 season. The person second from the left in middle row is Nihat Bekdik.” By chance the one person famous enough to be identified by name is the man I thought most closely resembled the lion. And by chance, the footballer’s name was hyperlinked to his own Wikipedia page. Here, the useful information that his nickname was “Lion” (Aslan) concluded my search for the “Lion of All Soccer Players.”

Far from a mere photograph, this image of Nihat Bekdik includes the cartoonist’s "Portrait Caricature" of the footballer which incorporates his most well-known attributes including a soccer ball. His nickname “Lion” is taken literally and through the magic of "The Bestiary" (not-so-political) a common quality between the man and the animal is highlighted: the footballer’s agility and prowess on the soccer field. His nickname, Lion, evokes the king of the jungle or a valiant fighter. Often heroic or courageous people are called lions, especially within the context of physical or national defense. And indeed, Bekdik played defense for Galatasaray. Thus, both through his nickname and his “portrait” we are encourage to think of him as a mighty, fearless lion.

Humor is injected into the caricature through its overall appearance: if it were to be taken literally, we would find ourselves staring at nothing more than a silly sketch of a lion head-butting a soccer ball.

(Entire page, Zümrüdüanka or “Phoenix,” 16 April 1925, no. 223, page 1.)