The Portrait Prints of Mehmed II

This thesis examines four European portrait prints of Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, dated 1470 to 1493. At the center of this study is a formal and iconographical analysis that indicated all are rooted in traditional artistic conventions of both Western princely portraiture and stereotypical imagery of evil doers. Part of a feverish textual and visual discourse that was the result of great fear for the Ottoman aggression, they all adhere to a conventionalized type for the Eastern despot. The portraits employ to varying degrees a general pictorial language of evil, based on medieval folk imagery, that employed sartorial and physical signifiers used for a wide range of social groups that were not accepted by Christian society. The result is four images that share certain characteristics, most notably an iconic hat, but differ considerably in others to bring across diverging messages about the sultan's ambiguous public identity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Turpijn, Saskia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eric Garberson
• Janna Israel
• Michael Schreffler
• Fredrika Jacobs

• portrait
• woodcut
• engraving
• fifteenth-century
• Mehmed II
• Arts and Humanities

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/356

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1355