A Man in a Turban Reading to a Young Woman 1774

This etching by Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder from 1774 presents a man in a turban reading to a young woman. The turban, often seen as a symbol of the exotic and the other, carries a rich history that stretches back to the East. We see the turban's echoes in Renaissance paintings, where Eastern figures often wear them to signify wisdom or foreignness. However, its representation also carries the weight of cultural exchange and sometimes misinterpretation, marking moments of both understanding and exoticizing. Think, for example, of Carpaccio’s paintings, where turbans evoke the allure and mystery of the Orient. This symbol has the power to conjure images of far-off lands and complex histories, inviting viewers into a world where imagination and reality intertwine. This artistic motif evolves through time, changing through the collective memory of artists, resurfacing in cycles, and accumulating new layers of meaning.