TOPKAPI:

Soft to the touch and thrilling to the eye, they once melted the dour sensibilities of early Protestants.

Decked in flowery vines, they captivated the exuberant passions of Henri Matisse, who put dozens of them in his paintings.

And steeped in the aura of a Turkish palace famed for its sumptuous harems and warrior sultans, they have enchanted the world for centuries, with their curvaceous forms eagerly imitated by the Spanish, English, Italians and Russians.

``They'' are Oriental carpets, enduring reminders of the ornamental pleasures that enlivened Turkey's Ottoman Empire and continue to enliven the legendary Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.

Beautiful rugs are just some of the more than 200 artifacts amassed by the sultans that are now on display in Palace of Gold and Light: Treasures From the Topkapi, Istanbul at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale.

OTTOMAN ART

``Palace of Gold & Light: Treasures from the Topkapi, Istanbul'' runs through Feb. 28 at the Museum of Art, 1 East Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission prices include acoustiguide tour; tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and students, $12 for groups, $6 for children ages 5-18, and free for children under 5. For more information, call 954-525-5500 or visit http://www.museumofart.org

It is a show designed not merely to delight but to dazzle, heaping before visitors bejeweled imperial treasures that never left Turkey until this traveling exhibition. The artifacts reflect the Ottoman appetite for dazzling emblems of power and superb craftsmanship during a four-century reign -- a reign that, by the 17th Century, stretched into Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, making it the world's largest empire at that time.

The empire began declining in the 18th Century and had completely collapsed by the end of World War I, prompting the formation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

But in its golden days, a multiethnic cadre of court artisans set the standard for imperial pomp. Members of 40 guilds produced daggers and swords gaudy with jumbo-sized gems, an ebony throne inlaid with mother-of-pearl, caftans of silk and gold, Chinese-influenced ceramics and magnificent examples of calligraphy etched on pages of the Koran, Islam's sacred book.

Gold filigree pitcher reflects the splendid, imperious luxury of a sultan's courts.

They also designed the handsome results of palatial looms. The tradition of carpetmaking stems from the days when nomadic tribes roamed the Asian steppes. As truly versatile textiles, ornamented with flowery tendrils and stylized medallions, they were just right for a palace decor that favored heaps of gold-embroidered cushions and low platforms instead of large pieces of furniture.

Such carpets were eventually employed to bring delicious splashes of color to the severe white interiors of Protestant churches.

``Every New England church had its Turkish rugs back in the 19th Century,'' says Walter Denny, senior advisor for the exhibition and a professor of art history and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. ``Bright, flamboyant colors have always been slightly suspect in a Protestant America that viewed anything bright and luxurious as immoral. So the easiest way to enjoy color was if the color was from a foreign country.

Elegant robes like this were the palace fashion

``For Europeans of the 19th Century who wore white linens, black ties and black shoes, and who lived in a hypocritical world where everything was very straitlaced on the surface and very passionately Madame Bovary on the underneath, this straightforward enjoyment of sensuality and color must have been a refreshing change from the humdrum banality of daily life.''

Color and sensuality are rife in this show.

The more than 200 objects, sent to the United States by the Turkish Ministry of Culture to mark the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Ottoman Empire, speak of an empire that exulted in extreme displays of sensual beauty as well as absolute power. A new sultan's first order of business was to have his brothers strangled with a bowstring, thereby putting a swift end to all sibling rivalries. One sultan even drowned his brothers' pregnant lovers -- stitching them into a sack and tossing them into the sea -- as an additional strategy for consolidating power.

An 18th Century dagger is among 200 treasures assembled for this first traveling exhibit.

Yet this was the same dynasty that devised gorgeous terraced gardens fragrant with honeysuckle, roses and jasmine. Songs from canaries and nightingales filled the air, while in the evening, glinting light was provided by tortoises ambling about with colored lanterns on their shells.

For one 18th Century sultan's spring festival, artisans created miniature gardens of sugar, dwarf fruit trees and tiny waterfalls crafted of mother-of-pearl and turquoise. If real flowers drooped during the revels, an Ottoman artisan would create botanical look-alikes from paper.

This particular sultan, Ahmet III, also held extravagant water festivals that were the marvel of the empire's European ambassadors, with nightlong fireworks and floating orchestras.

Examples of such refined extravagance prevail in Palace of Gold and Light.

``The most amazing thing about Ottoman art is the big bold forms,'' Denny says. ``It was an art meant to project over a distance, and yet it was combined with exquisite detail. There are lots of works that can be appreciated by people from 300 feet, and when you are up close you see that a dazzling weapon is carved with a tiny ruby-eyed phoenix.''

That last reference is to the 16th Century gold and ivory sword of Suleyman I, a fierce weapon that glitters with minuscule gold filigree. Adorned with a fantastic creature woven into a tiny labyrinth of curving lines, this broad sword is even more remarkable than the showy and notorious Topkapi Dagger, with its three massive emeralds.

The Topkapi Dagger, encased in layers of Plexiglas for security reasons, is an awe-inspiring sight. Known for its star turn in Topkapi, a 1964 film staring Peter Ustinov and Melina Mercouri about a failed jewel heist, the dagger played a real role in a bloody incident of 18th Century political intrigue that put its Hollywood role to shame.

It was created as a gift for a Persian shah, but the caravan bearing this prize was abruptly recalled when word arrived that the shah was overthrown, then murdered.

In the midst of all these showy and artful status symbols, it is the swirling gestures of calligraphy that make the show the most rewarding.

In an Islamic culture that disapproves of depictions of the human figure, beautiful writing embodies God's word and reflects a supreme level of artistic accomplishment. Whether or not we can read the actual words, the graceful arabesques and looping strokes reflect a distinctive abstract language luscious enough to be the envy of any 20th-Century abstract painter.