Nebahat Avcioglu – författare

In this first full-length study devoted explicitly to the examination of Ottoman/Turkish-inspired architecture in Western Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Nebahat Avcioglu rethinks the question of cultural frontiers not as separations but as a rapport of heterogeneities. Reclaiming turquerie as cross-cultural art from the confines of the inconsequential exoticism it is often reduced to, Avcioglu analyses hitherto neglected images, designs and constructions; and links Western interest in the Ottoman Empire to notions of self-representation and national politics. In investigating why and to what effect Europeans turned to the Turk for inspiration, Avcioglu provides a far-reaching cultural reinterpretation of art and architecture in this period. Presented as a series of case studies focusing on three specific building types”kiosks, mosques, and baths”chosen on the basis that each represents the first full-fledged manifestations of their respective genres to be constructed in Western Europe, the study delves into the cultural politics of architectural forms and styles. The author argues that the appropriation of those building types was neither accidental, nor did it merely reflect European domination of another culture. The process was essentially dialectical, and contributed to transculturation in both the West and the East.

In this first full-length study devoted explicitly to the examination of Ottoman/Turkish-inspired architecture in Western Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Nebahat Avcioglu rethinks the question of cultural frontiers not as separations but as a rapport of heterogeneities. Reclaiming turquerie as cross-cultural art from the confines of the inconsequential exoticism it is often reduced to, Avcioglu analyses hitherto neglected images, designs and constructions; and links Western interest in the Ottoman Empire to notions of self-representation and national politics. In investigating why and to what effect Europeans turned to the Turk for inspiration, Avcioglu provides a far-reaching cultural reinterpretation of art and architecture in this period. Presented as a series of case studies focusing on three specific building types”kiosks, mosques, and baths”chosen on the basis that each represents the first full-fledged manifestations of their respective genres to be constructed in Western Europe, the study delves into the cultural politics of architectural forms and styles. The author argues that the appropriation of those building types was neither accidental, nor did it merely reflect European domination of another culture. The process was essentially dialectical, and contributed to transculturation in both the West and the East.

Cities are shaped as much by a repertoire of buildings, works and objects, as by cultural institutions, ideas and interactions between forms and practices entangled in identity formations. This is particularly true when seen through a city as forceful and splendid as Venice. The essays in this volume investigate these connections between art and identity, through discussions of patronage, space and the dissemination of architectural models and knowledge in Venice, its territories and beyond. They celebrate Professor Deborah Howard’s leading role in fostering a historically grounded and interdisciplinary approach to the art and architecture of Venice. Based on an examination and re-interpretation of a wide range of archival material and primary sources, the contributing authors approach the notion of identity in its many guises: as self-representation, as strong sub-currents of spatial strategies, as visual and semantic discourses, and as political and imperial aspirations. Employing interdisciplinary modes of interpretation, these studies offer ground-breaking analyses of canonical sites and works of art, diverse groups of patrons, as well as the life and oeuvre of leading architects such as Jacopo Sansovino and Andrea Palladio. In so doing, they link together citizens and nobles, past and present, the real and the symbolic, space and sound, religion and power, the city and its parts, Venice and the Stato da Mar, the Serenissima and the Sublime Port.

For too long, the ’centre’ of the Renaissance has been considered to be Rome and the art produced in, or inspired by it. This collection of essays dedicated to Deborah Howard brings together an impressive group of internationally recognised scholars of art and architecture to showcase both the diversity within and the porosity between the ’centre’ and ’periphery’ in Renaissance art. Without abandoning Rome, but together with other centres of art production, the essays both shift their focus away from conventional categories and bring together recent trends in Renaissance studies, notably a focus on cultural contact, material culture and historiography. They explore the material mechanisms for the transmission and evolution of ideas, artistic training and networks, as well as the dynamics of collaboration and exchange between artists, theorists and patrons. The chapters, each with a wealth of groundbreaking research and previously unpublished documentary evidence, as well as innovative methodologies, reinterpret Italian art relating to canonical sites and artists such as Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Sebastiano del Piombo, in addition to showcasing the work of several hitherto neglected architects, painters, and an inimitable engineer-inventor.

For too long, the ’centre’ of the Renaissance has been considered to be Rome and the art produced in, or inspired by it. This collection of essays dedicated to Deborah Howard brings together an impressive group of internationally recognised scholars of art and architecture to showcase both the diversity within and the porosity between the ’centre’ and ’periphery’ in Renaissance art. Without abandoning Rome, but together with other centres of art production, the essays both shift their focus away from conventional categories and bring together recent trends in Renaissance studies, notably a focus on cultural contact, material culture and historiography. They explore the material mechanisms for the transmission and evolution of ideas, artistic training and networks, as well as the dynamics of collaboration and exchange between artists, theorists and patrons. The chapters, each with a wealth of groundbreaking research and previously unpublished documentary evidence, as well as innovative methodologies, reinterpret Italian art relating to canonical sites and artists such as Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Sebastiano del Piombo, in addition to showcasing the work of several hitherto neglected architects, painters, and an inimitable engineer-inventor.