Architecture and the Late Ottoman Historical Imaginary: Reconfiguring the Architectural Past in a Modernizing Empire (Studies in Art Historiography)

While European eclecticism is examined as a critical and experimental moment in western art history, little research has been conducted to provide an intellectual depth of field to the historicist pursuits of late Ottoman architects as they maneuvered through the nineteenth-century’s vast inventory of available styles and embarked on a revivalist/Orientalist program they identified as the “Ottoman Renaissance.” Ahmet Ersoy’s book examines the complex historicist discourse underlying this belated “renaissance” through a close reading of a text conceived as the movement’s canonizing manifesto: the Usul-i Mi‘mari-i ‘Osmani [The Fundamentals of Ottoman Architecture] (Istanbul, 1873). In its translocal, cross-disciplinary scope, Ersoy’s work explores the creative ways in which the Ottoman authors straddled between the art-historical mainstream and their new, self-orientalizing aesthetics of locality. The study reveals how Orientalism was embraced by its very objects, the self-styled “Orientals” of the modern world, as a marker of authenticity, and a strategically located aesthetic tool to project universally recognizable images of cultural difference. Rejecting the lesser, subsidiary status ascribed to non-western Orientalisms, Ersoy’s work contributes to recent, post-Saidian directions in the study of cultural representation that resituate the field of Orientalism beyond its polaristic core, recognizing its cross-cultural potential as a polyvalent discourse. While European eclecticism is examined as a critical and experimental moment in western art history, little research has been conducted to provide an intellectual depth of field to the historicist pursuits of late Ottoman architects as they maneuvered through the nineteenth centurya (TM)s vast inventory of available styles and embarked on a revivalist/Orientalist program they identified as the a "Ottoman Renaissance.a (TM) Ahmet A. Ersoya (TM)s book examines the complex historicist discourse underlying this belated a "renaissancea (TM) through a close reading of a text conceived as the movementa (TM)s canonizing manifesto: the Usul-i Mia "mari-i a "Osmani [The Fundamentals of Ottoman Architecture] (Istanbul, 1873). In its translocal, cross-disciplinary scope, Ersoya (TM)s work explores the creative ways in which the Ottoman authors straddled the art-historical mainstream and their new, self-orientalizing aesthetics of locality. The study reveals how Orientalism was embraced by its very objects, the self-styled a "Orientalsa (TM) of the modern world, as a marker of authenticity, and a strategically located aesthetic tool to project universally recognizable images of cultural difference. Rejecting the lesser, subsidiary status ascribed to non-western Orientalisms, Ersoya (TM)s work contributes to recent, post-Saidian directions in the study of cultural representation that resituate the field of Orientalism beyond its polaristic core, recognizing its cross-cultural potential as a polyvalent discourse Introduction: Back To The Roots: Reform And Revivalism In The Late Ottoman Empire -- Ottoman Things: Empire And Exoticism At The Vienna World Exhibition -- Cosmopolitan Commitments: Artistic Networks And The Invention Of Authenticity -- Recanonizing Tradition: The 'fundamentals' Of Ottoman Architecture -- Tanzimat Sensibilities And The Rise Of The 'ottoman Renaissance' -- Epilogue. By Ahmet A. Ersoy. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 297-306) And Index. Introduction: Back to the Roots: Reform and Revivalism in the Late Ottoman Empire 1 1 Ottoman Things: Empire and Exoticism at the Vienna World Exhibition 29 2 Cosmopolitan Commitments: Artistic Networks and the Invention of Authenticity 91 3 Recanonizing Tradition: The “Fundamentals” of Ottoman Architecture 131 4 Tanzimat Sensibilities and the Rise of the “Ottoman Renaissance” 185 Epilogue 241 Notes 253 Selected Bibliography 297 Index 307