‘Depicted with Extraordinary Skill’: Ottoman Dress in Sixteenth-Century German Printed Costume Books

Abstract

Costume books and encyclopaedias serve as important sources for understanding the visual construction of the Turk in German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire during the Early Modern period. This article examines how artists used costume studies to display fundamental aspects of the history and structure of the Ottoman Empire and its peoples by comparison with the rest of the world. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of these costume images as a way of redefining the Ottoman people for German-speaking readers and viewers as exotic, rather than as militaristic infidel enemies. The focus is on these representations of the Ottomans and their subjects in encyclopaedic costume works of the sixteenth century and their relationship to similar images in chronicles and histories. In particular, the influence of costume studies brought to Europe from Constantinople and created by both Ottoman and European artists is examined.

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