Liotard's fine portraits of Westerners in Turkish dress, Carpaccio's turbanned figures and the coveted 'Turkey' carpets that appear in paintings by Lotto and Holbein bear witness to a deep Western fascination with all things Ottoman. It is this cultural influence, spanning five hundred years — from the fall of Constantinople through to the twentieth century — that unites the wealth of paintings, drawing, photographs and decorative objects in this sumptuously illustrated book. The result is a visual feast of Turkish delights, from the exotic allure of the harem and Turkish baths to Ottoman-inspired Western interiors and pavilions; from paintings of Europeans in gorgeous Turkish costume to carpets, silks, tulips, turbans, Iznik tiles, coffee, tobacco, croissants... The delightfully informative text explains how Turkey, the gateway to the East, became a fountain of inspiration for so many artistic and cultural fields — painting, ceramics, textiles, interiors, fashion — in the West. Today the many fruits of this cultural meeting, enticingly displayed in this book, will engage a fresh audience with the decorative possibilities of the ravishing colours, motifs and furnishings of traditional Turkey.
