Important Precedence: Early Modern Orientalism

A massive cache of works of art depicting Oriental figures grew out of the Renaissance due to a variety of reasons. For centuries, Europe had had contact with the Islamic world, but in the 15^th century the Ottoman Empire began to gain tremendous power. Under the command of Sultan Mehmet II, the Ottomans expanded the Empire drastically, taking Constantinople, Athens, and Bosnia all within only eleven years. Europeans began to fear that the Ottoman’s next step would be to invade Rome; clearly, the fear of the Ottoman Turks as the “enemy” was not unreasonable.[1] In the 15^th century, the Turk transformed from a weak stranger into a formidable opponent.

Unsurprisingly, many images that depict Orientals came from Venice; as a major port city, Venetians had many more significant interactions with traders from the East than other Europeans. Gentile Bellini was one of the few artists to travel to Constantinople for purely artistic reasons, and was employed by the Sultan Mehmet II. Bellini’s carefully rendered images of the Sultan and other turbaned figures made their way back to Venice, where other artists like Albrecht Dürer were exposed to them.

European fear of the expansion of Islam from the Early Middle Ages endured throughout the Renaissance. After Mohammed’s death in 632 AD, Europeans saw the expansion of Islam throughout the Middle East, into North Africa, Spain, India and into China, and could only really respond with fear and astonishment.[2] The ideas of the Orient and Islam were inseparable to the European mind, and the military and spiritual expansions became equally concerning to the Occident.

For all of these reasons, the early modern period saw a proliferation of images depicting Oriental figures as the Other. Oriental figures in lavish clothing instilled ideas of mystery, great wealth, and exoticism. This manufacture of the Other for purposes of domination had dramatic political and religious implications, and prevailed throughout artworks created in the West that depicted the East.[3]

While it would be impossible to include every Renaissance work of art depicting a turbaned figure, the images in this section reveal the dramatic variety of works of art that speak to this early modern Orientalism. Portraits of Orientals, studies of costume, and religious works of art represent only a small portion of these images of the Orient as the Other; the artists’ keen interest in the Oriental costume throughout all of these images would remain an important focus for Castiglione, over one hundred years later.