From East to West: Legacy of Ottoman Renaissance material culture in the Early Modern Period 1400-1683
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Metin Mustafa
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Abstract: Having established itself as a global empire-on the shores of the Bosphorus-in 1453, the Ottoman Empire engaged in economic, commercial and military activities with various city-states of Italy, France and later, during the reign of Murad III, also with Elizabethan England. Therefore, it seems inconceivable that cross-cultural exchanges, of ideas and material goods, did not take place between the Ottomans and their European counterparts, or that these transactions left no impact on these civilisations. It is the aim of this study to elucidate the significance of the cross-cultural exchanges, material goods from East to West, and West to East. More specifically, demonstrating the centrifugal influence of Ottoman Renaissance material culture on early modern Europe where the objects of art acted as 'renaissance intermediaries' breaking down cultural barriers and boundaries. By re-orienting the Renaissance, and exploring the positive reception that Ottoman art and culture received across greater Europe from the Muscovy to Italy, to Poland and England, and Ottoman Hungary-this study integrates the early modern Ottoman artistic experience into the Renaissance material cultural narrative.