Ottomaanse ruiterstoet bij een hoge berg 1830 - 1845

Henricus Wilhelmus Couwenberg created this print of an Ottoman cavalcade near a mountain, in the Netherlands, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Prints like this, which appeared in bound books as well as separately, offered Europeans a glimpse into a world that, for most, was both far away and largely unknown. The artist may never have visited the Ottoman Empire, but he would have relied on written accounts and popular imagery of the time. In that sense, the image has less to do with the reality of the Ottoman Empire and more to do with the popular European imagination of it. Consider the ways in which the artist has depicted the figures and the landscape, what visual codes and cultural references are being used here? Historians often consult a range of sources, including travelogues, letters, and other visual materials, to understand how cultures perceive one another and how those perceptions are shaped by broader social and political forces.