From Souvenir to Stereotype: The Ottoman World in Early Modern Text and Image
Janissaries (Vienna, Austrian National Library, MS Vindobonensis 8626, dated circa 1590)
William Kynan-Wilson’s research explores texts and images in travel culture, in both the Medieval and Early Modern periods. He is particularly interested in the relationship between travel texts and images, and the ways in which they inform the expectations, experiences and actions of travellers. Kynan-Wilson obtained his BA, MPhil and PhD (2012) from the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge. His doctoral thesis examined Anglo-Norman writings about Rome and romanitas in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. From 2012 to 2014, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies at the University of Cambridge. His research has received funding from the Bibliographical Society (UK), the British Institute at Ankara, the American School for Classical Studies at Athens, the British Academy, and the Leverhulme Trust. In 2011 Kynan-Wilson curated the first exhibition in the United Kingdom devoted to Ottoman costume albums, and in 2012 he was awarded the Gordon Duff Prize in Bibliography (University of Cambridge).
From Souvenir to Stereotype: The Ottoman World in Text and Image
In the sixteenth century European taste for the Orient took many forms, of which one of the most popular and influential was a book known as an Ottoman costume album. These manuscripts, which were early travel souvenirs, contain a range of images that indicate how European audiences perceived and codified Ottoman society. The most striking aspect of these albums is the continuity of the iconography: the sixteenth-century costumes, poses and characters remained essentially unchanged for centuries. Kynan-Wilson’s research examines European-Ottoman relations through this genre of book. His research will result in the first comprehensive survey of these albums. It will trace the origins of this genre and demonstrate how these images, and the labels that accompanied them, reflect different experiences of the Ottoman world. This project also seeks to recover the dynamic, two-way exchange between European and Ottoman artists during this period. In so doing, Kynan-Wilson’s research engages with the reception of Islamic art in Early Modern Europe. Above all, this project offers new ways of thinking about European perceptions of and responses to the Orient.
