Fruits of Discord. Portraying the Ottoman Presence.
Through an example of rich cultural exchange, the exhibition in the Slovak National Gallery presents the interesting yet dramatic story of Hungarian-Ottoman relations during the 16th and 17th centuries. It introduces the period of Ottoman expansion in Hungary and the related mutual influences, especially overlaps of Ottoman material culture into Central European art.
The exhibition is the result of a six-year scientific research project in which more than twenty historians, archivists, art historians, military historians, literary historians, and archaeologists from various scientific and collecting institutions participated in the project. It is the first time that such a broadly conceived exhibition-editorial output of this topic has been realised in Slovakia.
Research of Slovak and foreign museum and gallery collections yielded a wealth of interesting material, from art (drawings, prints, paintings, ceramics, textiles, and handicrafts, including commemorative medals and coins) through archival sources and period prints, to militaria and documents reflecting fortification and fortress architecture, contemporary strategy, battle tactics, and defence modernisation on the frontier between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
A critical thematisation of the power and strength of the victors and the weakness of the vanquished that creates of an image of the Ottoman world, its exploration, and its propagation of fear, is just one of many strands that the exhibition presents. An important chapter of the project is historical memory and reflection, including internal domestic conflicts strongly echoed in our territory through the visual arts and literature.
