Early Dutch Orientalism and Enlightenment in Mahomets Alkoran (1696) Only a single illustrated edition of the Qur’an has been published throughout history. Mahomets Alkoran, a Dutch translation of 1696, is adorned with six illustrations that are seemingly both informative and sensational. In this thesis, I investigate how these contradictory sentiments in the illustrations of Muslims […]
Category: Cultural exchange
Watermark research is increasingly used in research of major artists and new techniques greatly expand the applicability of watermark research and its outcomes. Identification of a sheet’s watermark can give insight into the date and place of origin of a drawing, print or book. When different sheets are compared, the watermark can prove their connectedness […]
A 1687 painting by Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705) shows the diplomat Thomas Hees (1634-1693) surrounded by Dutch and Algerian objects. Hees is surrounded by his nephews Jan and Andries Hees and the black servant Thomas, whose name is known through the inscription on the painting’s verso. Andries is presenting a letter to his uncle, reading […]
The representation of oriental objects in Renaissance paintings is described by for example Spallanzani (2007), Ionescu (2005) and Carrier (2008). Currently, art historian Lauren Arnold works on an important attribution to this topic, partly through a database of paintings with oriental carpets. Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448) is one of the many Italian artists incorporating oriental carpets […]
On 24 May 1897 nineteen artists left the traditional Viennese Künstlerhaus, partly because they did not want to work in a historising style and because they did not want to be influenced by politics. They opposed the Austrian arthistorical tradition, forcing them to find their inspiration elsewhere. As a result of the technological revolution starting […]
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The Polyglot Bible
During the first Jesuit mission to the Mughal Court (1580-1583), the Jesuits presented among other gifts seven[1] volumes of Plantin’s Royal Polyglot Bible to Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605). In this essay, I focus on the gift of the Plantin Polyglot because this gift is discussed most thoroughly in the letters of the Jesuits to […]