The Album of the World Emperor
Cross-Cultural Collecting and Album Making in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul
- 296 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Album of the World Emperor
Cross-Cultural Collecting and Album Making in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul
About this book
The first study of album-making in the Ottoman empire during the seventeenth century, demonstrating the period's experimentation, eclecticism, and global outlook
The Album of the World Emperor examines an extraordinary piece of art: an album of paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and European prints compiled for the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) by his courtier Kalender Pa?a (d. 1616). In this detailed study of one of the most important works of seventeenth-century Ottoman art, Emine Fetvac? uses the album to explore questions of style, iconography, foreign inspiration, and the very meaning of the visual arts in the Islamic world.
The album's thirty-two folios feature artworks that range from intricate paper cutouts to the earliest examples of Islamic genre painting, and contents as eclectic as Persian and Persian-influenced calligraphy, studies of men and women of different ethnicities and backgrounds, depictions of popular entertainment and urban life, and European prints depicting Christ on the cross that in turn served as models for apocalyptic Ottoman paintings. Through the album, Fetvac? sheds light on imperial ideals as well as relationships between court life and popular culture, and shows that the boundaries between Ottoman art and the art of Iran and Western Europe were much more porous than has been assumed. Rather than perpetuating the established Ottoman idiom of the sixteenth century, the album shows that this was a time of openness to new models, outside sources, and fresh forms of expression.
Beautifully illustrated and featuring all the folios of the original seventy-page album, The Album of the World Emperor revives a neglected yet significant artwork to demonstrate the distinctive aesthetic innovations of the Ottoman court.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION: The Album of the World Emperor
- CHAPTER ONE: Sultan Ahmed I
- CHAPTER TWO: Sultan Ahmed’s Artistic Patronage
- CHAPTER THREE: Kalender and the Album
- CHAPTER FOUR: Calligraphy in the Album
- CHAPTER FIVE: The City and the World in the Album
- CHAPTER SIX: European Prints from the Album
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Photo Credits
- PLATES of the Album of the World Emperor (reproduced from back to front, following the order of Ottoman language books)