Robyn Dora Radway

Melchior Lorcks værker fascinerer. De har en særlig forførende karakter ikke ulig nutidens reklamer. Vi betages af deres gennemførte kompositioner, deres klarhed, enkelhed og håndværksmæssige niveau – deres billedkraft. Melchior Lorck levede fra 1526/27 til engang efter 1583 og er i dag relativt ukendt. Hvem var han? Og hvad ville hans værker? Lorck var frem for alt grafiker og ville udgive store, illustrerede bogværker. Ingen af dem blev dog færdige, og derfor kender vi kun til en begrænset del af hans ambitiøse, kunstneriske projekt. Dets fulde omfang og endelige udtryk kan vi kun forestille os. Trods dette står et fascinerende livsværk tilbage. Forskningen i Lorcks værker har været begrænset i forhold til, hvor internationalt banebrydende en kunstner han var. Denne bogs syv artikler præsenterer ny forskning, der belyser nye aspekter af Lorcks værk og foreslår nye forståelser og tolkninger af det.

In the late 16th century, hundreds of travelers made their way to the Habsburg ambassador's residence, known as the German House, in Constantinople. In this centrally located inn, subjects of the emperor found food, wine, shelter, and good company—and left an incredible collection of albums filled with images, messages, decorated papers, and more. Portraits of Empires offers a complete account of this early form of social media, which had a profound impact on later European iconography. Revealing a vibrant transimperial culture as viewed from all walks of life—Muslim and Christian, noble and servant, scholar and stable boy—the pocket-sized albums containing these curiosities have never been fully connected to the abundant archival records on the German House and its residents. Robyn Dora Radway not only introduces these objects, the people who filled their pages, and the house at the center of their creation, but she also presents several arguments regarding chronologies of exchange, workshop practices, the curation of social networks and visual collections based on status, and the purposes of these highly individualized material portraits. Featuring 162 fascinating color images, Portraits of Empires reconstructs the world of Habsburg subjects living in Ottoman Constantinople using a rich and distinctive set of objects to raise questions about imperial belonging and the artistic practices used to articulate it.

In the late 16th century, hundreds of travelers made their way to the Habsburg ambassador's residence, known as the German House, in Constantinople. In this centrally located inn, subjects of the emperor found food, wine, shelter, and good company—and left an incredible collection of albums filled with images, messages, decorated papers, and more. Portraits of Empires offers a complete account of this early form of social media, which had a profound impact on later European iconography. Revealing a vibrant transimperial culture as viewed from all walks of life—Muslim and Christian, noble and servant, scholar and stable boy—the pocket-sized albums containing these curiosities have never been fully connected to the abundant archival records on the German House and its residents. Robyn Dora Radway not only introduces these objects, the people who filled their pages, and the house at the center of their creation, but she also presents several arguments regarding chronologies of exchange, workshop practices, the curation of social networks and visual collections based on status, and the purposes of these highly individualized material portraits. Featuring 162 fascinating color images, Portraits of Empires reconstructs the world of Habsburg subjects living in Ottoman Constantinople using a rich and distinctive set of objects to raise questions about imperial belonging and the artistic practices used to articulate it.