Talk
Chamber Talks
The Three-Headed Dragon
Perceptions of Antiquity in Early Modern Ottoman Empire
18 December 2024 / 19:00
While the perception of antiquity has been extensively studied under the concept of antiquarianism in English literature regarding the early modern Mediterranean basin, it has remained limited in Ottoman urban and art histories. However, for instance, the Serpentine Column, or as it was known in early modern Ottoman narratives, the "three-headed snake/dragon," has gained significant representation both in Ottoman paintings and European engravings. In this context, the question of how to establish a relationship between the perception of city and antiquity in the early modern Ottoman Empire and different antiquarian manifestations in the Mediterranean basin remains an important question in Ottoman historiography, both in terms of art history and urban history.
Seeking to answer this question in his doctoral research, Turhan Ozan Yıldız will discuss the perception of Greco-Roman antiquity and the concept of antiquarianism in the early modern Ottoman visual, material, and cultural world, focusing on the Hippodrome/At Meydanı, in conversation with Saygın Salgırlı.
The talk will be broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Istanbul Research Institute.
About Chamber Talks
Chamber Talks, initiated by the Istanbul Research Institute (İAE) in 2008 to add a different dimension to Istanbul studies, with its scope ranging from history to architecture, from music to cinema, aims to feature the latest research and discussions about Istanbul.
About Turhan Ozan Yıldız
Currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, Turhan Ozan Yıldız previously completed his master's thesis titled "Ilyas Arabi's Risale-yi Istanbul: Perceptions of Architecture and Legend through a Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Text" under the supervision of Çiğdem Kafescioğlu at Boğaziçi University Department of History. Yıldız is writing his doctoral dissertation titled "An Investigation Towards Early Modern Ottoman Antiquarianism" under the supervision of Saygın Salgırlı. His research interests include the perception of Greek and Roman antiquity in the early modern Ottoman cultural and material world and the various representations of this perception. Yıldız is the recipient of the Istanbul Research Institute's 2024-25 Research and Write-Up Grant for PhD Candidates.
About Saygın Salgırlı
Saygın Salgırlı completed his doctoral studies at SUNY-Binghamton University in 2009. He taught at Sabancı University and Kadir Has University between 2009-2015. Currently a faculty member in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia since 2015, Dr. Salgırlı began working on the construction of reality in sixteenth-century Ottoman and Spanish visual culture following his studies and publications on Mediterranean and Ottoman architecture between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
