Danila Mayer: Tafel E ‘Orient’ in Archduke Ferdinand’s Portrait Collection. A Participative Study at Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Wien: Hollitzer Verlag, 2025 (Ottomania 15), 196 pages, 17 x 24 cm, English, Hardcover, with colour illustrations
ISBN 978-3-99094-612-1 (hbk) € 45,00
ISBN 978-3-99012-613-8 (pdf) € 44,99
Tafel E ‘Orient’ in Archduke Ferdinand’s Portrait Collection
A Participative Study at Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
This volume presents a study of the thirty-four portraits in panel E ‘Orient’ in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. In this multi-faced object potentates from south-eastern Europe and Ottoman, Persian and African empires are represented. The small oil paintings are copies from the sixteenth century, part of Archduke Ferdinand’s collection of almost a thousand postcard-sized images, and are presented in the museum's Münzkabinett.
The portraits are explored in a participative research: Interlocutors in Vienna from different backgrounds share their reactions, impressions and questions in interviews. The appearances, production, collecting and presentation of the pictures are discussed, and the results of visits to Innsbruck, Como, Istanbul and Florence regarding the history of the portraits complete the work.
While some mysteries remain unsolved, the research shows how people in contemporary Vienna interact with sixteenth-century portraits of an ‘Orient’.
CONTENTS
SOME PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS
Thomas Fillitz
INTRODUCTION
Description of Tafel E
The Research
Participative Study and Expert Interlocutors
The Non-European Other: Orientalism and Exoticism
Overview
THE INTERVIEWS:
WHAT DO YOU SEE, WHAT DO YOU FEEL,
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Sibel: Magic, Biographies, and My Own History
Eleonore: A Simple Black and White List Please
Muso: The Tafel is a Mystery to Be Solved
Ensieh: I Only Saw Gold and Power
Maziar: Obsession, Physiognomy, Archive
Ivan: Who Remains from History?
Thomas: Who Painted That and How … In Africa?
Renée: Just Faces Passing By Without Names
Gabriele: Between “Too Little” and “Too Much”
Carola: Food for Phantasies and Memories
Heidemarie: How Did They Get Here? …
Everything Will Come Back Together
Cos: Coins, the Ottoman Past, and Snapping Information
Agnes and Amie: African Empires? We Want to Know More about Them
INTERVIEW RESULTS:
RESPONSES, FEEDBACK AND QUESTIONS
Family, Gender, Physiognomy
Own Biography, Migration and Travel
Further Interest, Research and Reflections on History
Regions, “Afrikanische Reiche” and the “Orient”
Presentation and Descriptions
Style, Format, Inscriptions
Appearances: Complexions, Clothing, Headdresses, Beards, Jewellery, Insignia
Figures Especially Noticed
Context: Portraits Collection
Context: Münzkabinett
Context: The Museum as a World of Its Own
Interest in Further Visits and the Study at Hand
A CLOSER LOOK AT TAFEL E
The Portraits’ Descriptions
Summing up the Portraits’ Descriptions
Portrait Groups in Tafel E: Ottomans, the Women, African Rulers
PRODUCTION:
WHO PAINTED THE PORTRAITS, AND WHERE?
TRAVELLING PAINTERS, TRAVELLING IMAGES
COLLECTING AND COLLECTORS:
HOW DID THE PORTRAITS COME TOGETHER?
Archduke Ferdinand II von Tirol (1529–1595)
Paolo Giovio (1483–1552)
Travels to Copies
ASSEMBLING TAFEL E:
HISTORY AND PRESENTATION
The Tafel E as Object
The History of Tafel E
Listings of Tafel E Portraits
Presentation in the KHM
Other ‘Oriental’ Objects in Vienna
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX
Manual
Lists of Interlocutors’ Responses, Feedback and Questions
LITERATURE
