Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game with a large pattern Holbein carpet (1555) Oil on canvas © Fundacja im. Raczyskich przy Muzeum Narodowym w Poznaniu
'The Sultan’s World', an exhibition opening at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels on 27 February, sees the Ottoman Orient interpreted in the works of western Renaissance masters.
A looming military threat, an important trade partner and a cultural powerhouse – the Ottoman Empire (1453-1918) was many things to western Europe, with the importance of each role fluctuating with cultural and historical circumstances. Exoticism was rife, and pervades the Renaissance artworks taking the east as their subject. The Ottoman court conjured up images of a particular brand of eastern sumptuousness, a world of decadence, mystery and untold material wealth. The objects of this society were highly sought after by collectors in the west, as Sofonisba Anguissola’s painting of a game of chess being played on a carpet-covered table demonstrates.
Venetian Artist, Sultan Suleiman II, ca. 1530 © Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Costume was of special interest to European artists. A Venetian portrait of Sultan Suleiman II from c. 1530 includes an outlandishly large turban, an anonymous depiction imagines the same ruler in a fanciful jewel-studded helmet whereas Albrecht Dürer’s watercolour ‘Ottoman Rider’ is a more sober ethnographic study.
