Orhan Pamuk situated his novel, Benim Adim Kirmizi, translated as My Name is Red, in late sixteenth-century Istanbul, at the zenith of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Sultan Murat III (1574-95). Its multi-layered plot comprises a love story and two murders. Conversely, the article focuses on the characters who as miniaturist painters practice the traditional art of book illustration, and also on those involved in the production of the secret book, following the Venetian model, which the sultan commissioned to give an account of himself, his reign and possessions. The Leitmotif throughout the novel is what black and red signify in relation to the traditional as opposed to the foreign model. In unfolding events and views expressed on art, the life-world, culture and religion of traditionalist illustrators and those influenced by Western art practice are respectively coded black and red.
