Genoa, an international conference on the Western image of Islam in the early modern age

Held at Palazzo Balbi Cattaneo and Palazzo del Principe in Genoa, June 6-8, 2018, is the international conference Figures of Religious Otherness. Images of Islam. Encounters and Clashes (from Lepanto to Matapan), curated by Laura Stagno. The aim of the initiative, promoted by the School of Humanities of theUniversity of Genoa in collaboration with a research team consisting of scholars from Spanish (UNED-Madrid, Alicante, Lleida, Barcelona), and French (Rouen), Croatian (Split) and Italian (Genoa and Macerata) universities, is to explore the Western and Mediterranean image of Islam in the early modern age, between the 16th and 18th centuries. Alongside the rhetoric of the “clash” between East and West, aspects of fascination with the Near East will also be explored, with attention to the mutual influence between civilizations, examples of Turkophilia in the West, and the permeability of borders between different traditions.

The conference venue, Genoa, an ante litteram“cosmopolitan” city, offers a great (as well as little-studied) heritage of representations of the “Turk” between the 16th and 18th centuries. “In a context in which information came from a plurality of sources,” reads the presentation, “the representation of Islamic alalterity contributed by contrast to the definition of identity images of the city, but it also became a specific instrument of exaltation of the role of some great families directly engaged in the conflict with the Muslim enemy, in particular the Doria princes of Melfi - Andrea and Giovanni Andrea - for whose patronage and public image the triumph over the Turks was a crucial element.” The conference has the scientific coordination of Giuseppe Capriotti (University of Macerata) and Borja Franco Llopis (UNED), and is sponsored by the University of Genoa, UNED (Department of Art History and Facultad de Geografía e Historia,) Comité Español de Historia del Arte (CEHA), Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad-Gobierno de España, and Research Project Individuos y grupos de la Europa oriental y del imperio safavi en España y la América española de la edad moderna. Some of the topics that will be addressed: the image of the “Turk” in the Genoese area, Ottoman art artifacts in Genoa, Muslims in Genoa and the Genoese in the Maghreb, the iconography of Lepanto, fear of the other in the popular imagination of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Turkish cuisine in sixteenth-century Venice, and Ottoman sexuality between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Following is the full program.

Wednesday, June 6
Palazzo Balbi Cattaneo

9:30 a.m. Greetings:
Michele MARSONET [Dean School of Humanities, University of Genoa]
Alberto BENISCELLI [Director DIRAAS, University of Genoa]
Introduction: Lauro MAGNANI [University of Genoa]
Chair: Giuseppe CAPRIOTTI [University of Macerata]

10.00
Paolo CALCAGNO and Luca LO BASSO [University of Genoa]
Lossessione barbaresca. The Turkish narrative through documents relating to the landings in Liguria between the 16th and 17th centuries

10.30
Bastien CARPENTIER [Université du Littoral Côte dOpale]
The Turk, an enemy? Synthesis of information and warlike entrepreneurship in the Hispano-Genoese Mediterranean (16th century)

10.50
Laura STAGNO [University of Genoa]
Images of the Turk in Genoese art: lines of research

11.10
Debate

11.30
Coffee break

12.00
Loredana PESSA [Strada Nuova Museums, Genoa]
Turkish Works in Genoa. Ottoman artifacts in private residences and sacred buildings

12.20
Sara RULLI [MiBact Palazzo Reale, Genoa]
Graphic and descriptive sources for the depiction of the Turk between the 16th and 18th centuries: architectures uses and customs

12.40
Debate

Lunch break

Chair: Lauro MAGNANI [University of Genoa]

15.00
Andrea ZAPPIA [University of Genoa]
Under the sign of reciprocity: Muslim slaves in Genoa and Genoese in Maghreb

15.20
Matteo FIORAVANTI [University of Genoa]
Scenes of daily life of Turkish slaves in the port of Genoa in the first half of the seventeenth century. Cornelis De Wael’s Galleotti series (1592-1667)

15.40
Daniele SANGUINETI [University of Genoa].
Lepanto and sacred lyconography. The Genoese case

16.00
Valentina FIORE [Polo Museale della Liguria]
For Grace Received: fear and the vision of the other in votive offerings and popular imagery between the 17th and 18th centuries

16.20
Debate

16.40
Coffee break

17.00
Giuseppe CAPRIOTTI [University of Macerata] The Turks of Pius V. Texts and images between center and periphery

17.00
Gianpaolo ANGELINI [University of Pavia]
Fortuna and replicas of the portraits of the Grand Turks in Spanish Lombardy from Paolo Giovio to the Borromeos

17.20
Francesco SORCE [Barberini Palace]
Add a Turk to the Table. The Ottomans in Sixteenth-Century Venetian Dinners. Guests, servants, spectators

17.40
Debate

Thursday, June 7
Palazzo Balbi Cattaneo

Chair: Maria Clelia GALASSI [University of Genoa]

9.00
Antonio URQUÍZAR HERRERA [UNED]
Islamic Granada in the Memory of the Spanish Nobility

9.20
Borja FRANCO LLOPIS [UNED]
Hybrid images: moriscos and Turks in the Iberian Peninsula

9.40
Maria Vittoria SPISSU [University of Bologna]
Battles and affabulary stories in the odor of crusade: the oriental lammantate as a pivot in Flemish miniature and in the definition of the valiant European compage

10.00
Debate

10.30
Coffee break

11.00
Ivana �?APETA RAKI�? [University of Split].
Images and perception of Muslims in printed books of Croatian authors in the Early Modern period

11.20
José CUTILLAS [Universidad de Alicante]
Persians in the Patriarch Juan de Riberas Painting Collection. Perception of Diversity in 17th Century Spain

11.40
Luis F.BERNAB�? PONS [Universidad de Alicante]
Al fondo del espejo. Imágenes de la sexualidad otomana en los siglos XVI y XVII

12.00
Debate

Lunch Break

Prince’s Palace

Chair: Laura STAGNO [University of Genoa]

15.00
Victor MÍNGUEZ CORNELLES [Universitat Jaume I]
Un mar de cadáveres turcos. Lepanto entre iconografías diluvianas e infernales

15.20
Ivan REGA CASTRO [Universitat de Lleida]
There was a man sent by God, whose name was John. The Struggle in the Mediterranean and the image of the Christian hero between Lepanto and Matapan

15.40
Emiliano BERI [University of Genoa]
Accusation, defense and self-defense. The debate over Giovanni Andrea Doria’s action at Lepanto

16.00
Debate

16.30
Guided tour of the Prince’s Palace (Tapestries of the Battle of Lepanto)

Friday, June 8
Balbi Cattaneo Palace

Chair: Borja Franco LLOPIS [UNED]

9.00
Steven HUTCHINSON [University of Madison]
Disquisiciones sobre alteridades múltiples en el Mediterráneo de los Siglos de Oro

9.20 Mercedes ALCALÁ [University of Madison]
Esclavitudes voluntarias: paradojas de la sumisión en la ficción áurea

9.40
Youssef EL ALAOUI [Université de Rouen Normandie]
Coloquio entre un asimilacionista y un extirpacionista: los moriscos de Ignacio de las Casas (SJ) y los de Damián de Fonseca (OP)

10.00
Debate

10.30
Coffee break

11.00
José María PERCEVAL [Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona]
Espacio, alteridad, identidad y violencia icónica: la perspectiva horizontal y vertical en la visión del enemigo turco durante el siglo XVI y comienzos del XVII

11.20
Arianna MAGNANI [University of Venice].
LAltro visto dagli Altri: limmagine del musulmano nel contesto gesuitico Seicentesco, tra fonti cinesi e dipinti italiani

11.40
Valentina BORNIOTTO [University of Genoa].
Docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos. St. Francis Xavier and images of the Turk between conversion and evangelization

12.00
Debate

12.30
Closing of the conference

Genoa, an international conference on the Western image of Islam in the early modern age

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