Venice and the Ottoman Empire: A Tale of Art, Culture, and Exchange

Accompanying a major traveling exhibition, this book examines the unique artistic and cultural exchange between the Republic of Venice and Turkish Ottoman culture and identity over a three-hundred-year period.

From the early Renaissance to the end of the eighteenth century, Venice held a central position in the global trade network. This book explores how artistic and cultural ideas originating in the Ottoman Empire arrived in Venice and were reinterpreted through the decorative arts, printed books, painting, drawing, and architecture.

Featuring a richly diverse selection from the collections of the Musei Civici di Venezia, this volume showcases the creative contributions of well-known Venetian artists such as Vittore Carpaccio, Gentile Bellini, Michele Giambono, and Mariano Fortuny alongside works created by the best anonymous craftspeople both in Venice and the Ottoman Empire, including textiles, metalwork, armor, and ceramics. With newly researched essays by esteemed international scholars on topics such as trade routes, the involvement of international communities in Venice, diplomatic interactions, and military power dynamics, this important volume offers freshly reviewed and new perspectives on the intricate artistic relationship that existed between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

Stefano Carboni was the inaugural CEO of the Museums Commission of the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2019-23); director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Western Australia (2008-19); and curator and administrator in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1992-2008). He is adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia.