Conference: Carpets and other Islamic « signs » in the Renaissance venetian painting

by Giovanni Curatola

7 December 2021, 18.30, Uni Philosophes, Room PHIL201

For centuries and since the Byzantine period, Venice has maintained close contacts with the Oriental Mediterranean, being one of the main centers devoted to commercial relations with the Islamic East, in particular the Syrian-Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire. These close relations, which were intense and continuous through different historical phases, led Venetian society to be to some extent dependent on many goods (and even people) coming from the other side of the sea. This situation affected the artists active in Venice to the extent that they used or depicted Islamic objects (mainly robes) in their paintings. It should not be forgotten that the most important relic brought adventurously into the lagoon was the body of St. Mark, from Alexandria.

Giovanni Curatola is Professor of Archaeology and History of Islamic Art at the University of Udine. A traveler to the lands of the East, he is one of the most famous archaeologists and historians of Islamic art, even at the international level, and has published about 150 books and scientific papers.