CODART Canon

Customs and Fashions of the Turks

Pieter Coecke van Aelst, 1553

Netherlandish artists are known for their depictions of everyday life. In this monumental series of woodcuts, Pieter Coecke van Aelst shows not the customs of Western Christians, but the ‘customs and fashions’ of Islamic Turks. In addition to a procession of the Great Sultan in Constantinople, a Turkish funeral, festivities on the occasion of a circumcision and the end of Ramadan are also represented.

The empire of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was an absolute superpower in Coecke’s time. In addition to numerous conflicts fought on land and sea, the Western Christian world maintained extensive diplomatic and economic contact with the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were both feared and admired.

The woodcuts are the result of a trip to Constantinople that Coecke made in 1533. The journey, undertaken in the company of merchants from Brussels and Antwerp, was aimed at selling Brussels tapestries to the sultan. Although nothing came of that, the numerous sketches and drawings that Coecke made during this journey did serve as models for a publication of woodcuts. The scenes are masterfully staged and are reminiscent of Coecke’s large narrative tapestry series.

— Joris Van Grieken, Curator of prints and drawings, KBR Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, Brussels