Published on 16 April 2024
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Visuality and representation of Constantinople in the premodern era

View of Constantinople, Georg Matthäus Seutter, circa 1730 - Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, collection of Orientalist paintings, inv. 227

A large-format reproduction of a watercolour copperplate engraving by Georg Matthäus Seutter circa 1730, showing an aerial view of Constantinople, now welcomes researchers to the Mediterranean and African Worlds Pole of the Institut des Civilisations. The panorama of the city shows remarkable buildings and the urban morphology of the period. It is also part of a history of pictorial representation of the city, from a Venetian prototype from the15th century, via similar views from the16th century, to 3D computer models.