Illumination is our traditional book ornamentation art. In the written albums, in imperial edicts and calligraphy signboards, all ornamentation work done by paint and gold is called illumination. The meaning comes from “zehep” (gold) in Arabic and it means gold plating; but in illumination art, right along with gold, root paints, colored soil paints, mine oxides and dusts of colored stones are used mixing with the glued water. The illumination only done with gold is called “halkar”. Halkar is a painting style done by mixing the crushed gold gelatin and water, by using a brush.
The illumination mother art branch, is aimed to raise artists who will be able to build up a bridge between our past and today and who will be able to evaluate, protect, keep them alive, restore the manuscripts by their periods and the art braches such as Calligraphy, Marbling, Miniature, Binding which are used for the ornamentations of these works and are offered to students both in theory and practice. The program involves apprenticeship studies to help students acquire real artistic skills.