Robust trade connections and artistic exchange between Europe and the East have been documented by merchants as far back as the 11th century in Fatimid Egypt. Such exchanges increased in the Middle Ages and especially during the Renaissance.
This lecture focuses on the large numbers of well-preserved antique Ottoman carpets still hanging in Lutheran churches in Transylvania. It also considers the way noblemen in Poland adopted eastern forms of dress in the early modern era, combining original Ottoman costumes with locally made accessories that imitated Ottoman and Persian fabrics.
Susan Scollay is an art historian specialising in Islamic art and architecture and in historic textiles. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and honorary fellow in art history and curatorship at the University of Melbourne. She has been a regular speaker at The Johnston Collection since 2007.