DÜĞÜM

This program explores the centuries-long influence of Turkish culture on European civilization through the presence of Turkish carpets in the works of European painters. By connecting art history with cultural exchange, the project approaches these carpets not merely as decorative objects, but as powerful markers of trade, prestige, aesthetic circulation, and intercultural contact.Through a wide selection of paintings—from the Ottoman carpet depicted in John de Critz’s The Somerset House Conference to the Uşak carpet in Paris Bordone’s The Fisherman Presenting the Ring of Saint Mark to the Doge, and from the Caucasian-Azerbaijani carpets in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele to the Milas carpets in Thomas de Keyser’s Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and His Clerk—the program traces the visibility of Turkish carpet art in European painting. Works by Lippo Memmi, Cornelis de Vos, Saint Gilles, Johannes Vermeer, Hans Memling, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Gentile Bellini, and Hans Holbein further expand this visual and historical landscape through carpets from Konya, Bergama, Uşak, Ayvacık, and Western Anatolia.Focusing in particular on the representation of the Uşak carpet through Lorenzo Lotto’s The Alms of Saint Antoninus, the program reveals how Turkish carpets occupied a lasting place in Europe not only as utilitarian objects, but also as symbols of refinement, prestige, and cultural memory.Produced by me for Moses Film, with project design by Merve Sena Kılıç Haznevi, this work brings together art history and cultural exchange in a distinctive screen narrative, tracing the enduring imprint of Turkish carpets in European painting and highlighting a multilayered relationship between Anatolia and Europe.