E445 | The line between Orientalist and Ottoman painting might at first seem clear. But in this episode, historian Mary Roberts argues that such distinctions are in fact complicated, drawing on her recent book Istanbul Exchanges: Ottomans, Orientalists and Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture. She explains how Istanbul became a global center of production, circulation, and exhibition of visual culture in the nineteenth century. Ottomans and Orientalists both contended and connected with each other--whether in Pera or in the palace--and Roberts discusses how these networks of patronage and apprenticeship eventually led to works that were produced in Istanbul ending up all around the world. There they became defined as Orientalist, but Roberts unearths the more tangled genealogy of their production, as well as the relevance of audience in these characterizations.
More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/01/ottoman-paintings.html
Mary Roberts is Professor of Art History and Nineteenth-Century Studies at the University of Sydney. She works on the late Ottoman Empire and Orientalist visual culture.
Zeinab Azarbadegan is a Ph.D. candidate in International and Global History at Columbia University. She is currently conducting research for her dissertation project on the subject of sovereignty and citizenship in nineteenth century Ottoman Iraq.
CREDITS
Episode No. 445
Release Date: 18 January 2020
Recording Location: Istanbul
Audio editing by Maryam Patton
Music: Komiku - Un désert; Istanbul by kara güneş
Images and bibliography courtesy of Mary Roberts available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/01/ottoman-paintings.html
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