Sultan op troon luistert naar zijn staatsministers (vizieren) 1744

C. van Beughem created this print, “Sultan on the Throne Listening to his Ministers,” and it reflects a moment of cultural fascination in Europe. The image presents the Sultan in a formal audience, surrounded by his viziers, all adorned in elaborate turbans and robes. It’s important to remember the historical context: this print would have been made during a time of intense political and economic rivalry between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The artist would likely have been working with secondhand accounts and visual stereotypes. The setting is grand, with a hint of exoticism that speaks to the European imagination. The use of the crescent moon symbol reinforces the Islamic identity, while the architecture in the background suggests a distant, yet powerful empire. Prints like these served to inform and perhaps also to reinforce a sense of European identity against an ‘other.’ To truly understand this work, we would need to delve into the print culture of the time, exploring how the Ottomans were represented and perceived, and how these images played into the power dynamics of the era.