Extrase din impresii si birfe istorico-culturale ...
Gentile Bellini: Mehmed II, 1430-1431
"Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797" , a breathtaking new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here shows that for several hundred years during the Middle Ages, a Christian city and the Muslim lands of the Middle East not only tolerated each other, they profited handsomely from their relationship.
With almost 200 objects from more than 60 public and private collections, the show documents the many ways the East and the West enriched each other's cultures.
Venetian merchants did their best to remain middlemen during the Crusades, supporting the Christian forces but maintaining trade ties with Muslim rulers.
[...]
With no natural resources, Venice depended on trade for its prosperity, but its first famous encounter with the Islamic world involved outright theft. In 828, two Venetian merchants smuggled the bones said to be the remains of St. Mark, the author of one of the Gospels, out of Alexandria, Egypt, by hiding the saint's relics under layers of pork. The merchants knew that Muslims considered pork haram, or prohibited, so the local officials would not inspect the cargo closely.
[...]
As Venice's trading empire developed, raw materials such as timber, metal, grain and fur from Europe passed through the city on their way East, in return for luxury goods from Syria, Egypt, Turkey and beyond. Although the average Venetian could not read Arabic, fabrics embroidered with Arabic inscriptions became highly fashionable, and some of the most elaborate vestments worn by Venetian priests were imported from Muslim lands. Venice became known as the most un-European city in Europe.
[...]
The political landscape shifted constantly during these centuries. There were wars, battles and a few murderous Crusades. As they shuttled among a succession of caliphs, pashas, sultans and viziers, Venetian merchants often learned Arabic to keep an edge over their European competitors.
[...]
An interesting section covers Gentile Bellini's two-year sojourn at Mehmet's court. (vezi moneda mai sus) He was a thin man with great taste and curiosity, a serious overbite and an immense sense of self: He loved looking at his own portraits. Bellini was a star painter. That the Venetian Senate dispatched him suggests how much both sides valued art as a conduit to commerce, understanding and sometimes peace.
[...]
Look at the quietly magnificent painting showing "The Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors in Damascus," by an anonymous painter in the Carpaccio mode. Gathering outside the entrance to the town is a festive array of camels, dignitaries and a red-robed townie with his pet monkey. Note the especially complex Mamluk turban, a vertical marvel, that seems to have done wonders for Venice's millinery workshops.
[...]
From its height of wealth and influence in the 15th and 16th Centuries, the city started to decline as Portuguese and Dutch sailors opened trade routes with Asia by sailing around Africa. Just as important, the city's former trading partner to the east -- the Turkish Ottoman Empire -- started an often brutal campaign to conquer the city's trading outposts in the eastern Mediterranean.
With that change in fortunes, the Venetian image of Muslims changed dramatically.
In the final gallery of "Venice and the Islamic World," a stunning decoration from the stern of a 17th Century Venetian warship says it all. The 12-foot carving shows a bare-chested Muslim in chains.
More about the mercantile spirit of those centuries here ..., and here ... (Extrase din articole semnate de Manuela Hoelterhoff si Stevenson Swanson)
Gentile Bellini: Mehmed II, 1430-1431
"Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797" , a breathtaking new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here shows that for several hundred years during the Middle Ages, a Christian city and the Muslim lands of the Middle East not only tolerated each other, they profited handsomely from their relationship.
With almost 200 objects from more than 60 public and private collections, the show documents the many ways the East and the West enriched each other's cultures.
Venetian merchants did their best to remain middlemen during the Crusades, supporting the Christian forces but maintaining trade ties with Muslim rulers.
[...]
With no natural resources, Venice depended on trade for its prosperity, but its first famous encounter with the Islamic world involved outright theft. In 828, two Venetian merchants smuggled the bones said to be the remains of St. Mark, the author of one of the Gospels, out of Alexandria, Egypt, by hiding the saint's relics under layers of pork. The merchants knew that Muslims considered pork haram, or prohibited, so the local officials would not inspect the cargo closely.
[...]
As Venice's trading empire developed, raw materials such as timber, metal, grain and fur from Europe passed through the city on their way East, in return for luxury goods from Syria, Egypt, Turkey and beyond. Although the average Venetian could not read Arabic, fabrics embroidered with Arabic inscriptions became highly fashionable, and some of the most elaborate vestments worn by Venetian priests were imported from Muslim lands. Venice became known as the most un-European city in Europe.
[...]
The political landscape shifted constantly during these centuries. There were wars, battles and a few murderous Crusades. As they shuttled among a succession of caliphs, pashas, sultans and viziers, Venetian merchants often learned Arabic to keep an edge over their European competitors.
[...]
An interesting section covers Gentile Bellini's two-year sojourn at Mehmet's court. (vezi moneda mai sus) He was a thin man with great taste and curiosity, a serious overbite and an immense sense of self: He loved looking at his own portraits. Bellini was a star painter. That the Venetian Senate dispatched him suggests how much both sides valued art as a conduit to commerce, understanding and sometimes peace.
[...]
Look at the quietly magnificent painting showing "The Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors in Damascus," by an anonymous painter in the Carpaccio mode. Gathering outside the entrance to the town is a festive array of camels, dignitaries and a red-robed townie with his pet monkey. Note the especially complex Mamluk turban, a vertical marvel, that seems to have done wonders for Venice's millinery workshops.
[...]
From its height of wealth and influence in the 15th and 16th Centuries, the city started to decline as Portuguese and Dutch sailors opened trade routes with Asia by sailing around Africa. Just as important, the city's former trading partner to the east -- the Turkish Ottoman Empire -- started an often brutal campaign to conquer the city's trading outposts in the eastern Mediterranean.
With that change in fortunes, the Venetian image of Muslims changed dramatically.
In the final gallery of "Venice and the Islamic World," a stunning decoration from the stern of a 17th Century Venetian warship says it all. The 12-foot carving shows a bare-chested Muslim in chains.
More about the mercantile spirit of those centuries here ..., and here ... (Extrase din articole semnate de Manuela Hoelterhoff si Stevenson Swanson)
3 comments:
Da, intr`adevar, se pare ca venetienii, ...
cind au cerut-o interesele legate de prosperitatea lor, au ridicat osanale pina si criminalului de Mehmet ...
asa cum se intimpla si azi cu multe tari europene.
Cum adica? Nu numai evreii se jucau cu banii ci si stimatzii venetzieni? ... Incredibil!
umbla pe blogul allalt o cassandra despletita, aiurind febrila, imaginindu-si ca vorbeste cu pretziosul artist venetian Gentile Bellini (care insa a murit cam de multisor, prin 1507, ...)
cica:
"Bine ca-mi tufleste un mega partriet cu un macelar asasin alde otomanul Mehmet II, care si-a asasinat TOATA familia si stingea lumanarile din Sf. Sofia cu capurile bebelusilor crestini, etc, etc, cand a pus laba pe Constantinopol... e clar ce are-n bibilica ! Una scorreggia !"
sarmana !
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