Военная история / The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720

Название: The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720
Автор: Gerald Maclean
Издательство: Palgrave
Год: 2004
Страниц: 291
Язык: English
Формат: True PDF
Размер: 14 MB

On the cover of Gerald MacLean's engaging new study, The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720 is a 'Portrait of a European Man' by the Ottoman Artist Abdelcelil Celebi, known as Levni, and painted c.1720. MacLean does not discuss this portrait, but its selection as a cover image is calculated and significant. A strikingly similar image appears on the back book flap, portraying MacLean in a pose not unlike Levni's anonymous traveller. Each stands against a backdrop of perfect blue sky, clothed in characteristically Western garments, and wearing an expression that appears to survey the scrub-speckled desert landscape which he foregrounds and dominates. Produced nearly four centuries apart and through distinctly different technologies of representation, these images juxtaposed on the dust jacket offer important insights into the critical and narrative composition of MacLean's book. The author's portrait, produced through photographic technology, offers sharper lines and what would seem to be a more trustworthy representation than Levni's painted portrait of the sky, landscape and traveller. While the inert facial features of Levni's European man conform to conventions of Ottoman court painting, the windblown, sunglasses-wearing MacLean would appear to be more authentic. Whereas Levni's desert landscape is idealised with blooming flowers, MacLean stands on a more desolate scene, where unexceptional, pale green scrub pushes through rocky crevices. In other words, MacLean's portrait seeks to revisit and demystify Levni's, offering accuracy, truth, and perspective in place of Levni's romanticised fiction.