The city of Venice, in northeastern Italy, was founded in the seventh century.
The city is comprised of 117 small islands situated in a lagoon with easy access to both the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas.The Venetians took full advantage of their city’s strategic location to conduct both local and long distance trade, and eventually became one of the world’s most powerful maritime empires.
Venice’s economy focused on trade and merchants held important positions of power in Venetian culture. Venice began trading with the Islamic world as early as the eighth century.
For centuries, Venice was the link between Europe and the Muslim powers in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; most luxury goods making their way over sea routes from Islamic lands to Europe passed through Venetian ports.
Because of the importance of trade with Arab lands and Ottoman Turkey, many Venetians learned Arabic and spent considerable time in these regions, buying goods such as spices and raw silk that could be sold for a profit upon their return.
This trade had an enormous economic as well as cultural advantage for both parties. Artistic techniques, ideas, and motifs flowed from East to West, and vice versa, through the movement of both merchants and goods.
Venice’s main trading partners were the Mamluks, whose capital was in Egypt, and the Ottomans, whose capital was in Turkey. Despite the mutual benefit of trade, Venice’s relationship with both of these empires was complex, encompassing intermittent periods of peace interrupted by trade embargos and territorial wars.
Venice and the Mamluks
The Mamluk empire (1250–1517) was a military-controlled sultanate that
ruled lands in present-day Egypt and Syria.
Trade between the Venetians and
Mamluks began as early as the thirteenth century and profited both empires,
strengthening their diplomatic ties.
Trade led to the exchange of materials
and goods as well as artistic styles and techniques. Artists in Syria and Egypt
produced works of exquisite craftsmanship in glass, metal, silk, and wood
to be traded with Europe, most often through the Venetians.
The Venetians
particularly valued the opulence and sophistication of Mamluk enameled
glassware and began producing local imitations.
Some of the buildings
erected in Venice during the height of this trade relationship also reflected
Mamluk style, which the Venetians saw as luxurious and exotic .
The Mamluks and Venetians remained advantageous
trading partners until Ottoman forces conquered the Mamluks in 1516–17.
Trade between the former Mamluk lands and Venice continued, but under
the auspices of Ottoman rule.
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| Facade of the Doge’s Palace, Venice, Italy, 1340–1510 |
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| Mosque of Altinbugha al-Maridani, Cairo, Egypt, 1339–40 |
Note similarities in the style of the arcades and crenellations to those in the Doge’s Palace above.
Venice and the Ottomans
Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Venetian and Ottoman empires were trading partners—a mutually beneficial relationship providing each with access to key ports and valuable goods.
Though territorial wars intermittently interrupted their relationship, both empires relied on trade for their economic well-being. As a Venetian ambassador expressed, “being merchants, we cannot live without them.” The Ottomans sold wheat, spices, raw silk, cotton, and ash (for glass making) to the Venetians, while Venice provided the Ottomans with finished goods such as soap, paper, and textiles.
The same ships that transported these everyday goods and raw materials also carried luxury objects such as carpets, inlaid metalwork, illustrated manuscripts, and glass. Wealthy Ottomans and Venetians alike collected the exotic goods of their trading partner and the art of their empires came to influence one another.
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| Venice as rendered by Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis in the early 16th century. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz |
The Islamic impact on Venice
The latest Islamic tastes were often reflected in the homes of the richest
Venetians, for whom luxury objects from the East became desired
collectibles. Islamic art and architecture also influenced Venetian painting.
Artists who traveled to Islamic lands were fascinated by the people,
garments, and architecture they saw there and sketched them in meticulous
detail. Many brought their drawings back to Europe, where they circulated
widely in artistic circles.
Such sketches influenced a whole generation of
painters and led to the popularity of Eastern scenes and costumes in Venice. Venetian paintings, particularly of biblical subjects, incorporated
settings inspired by Mamluk Egypt and Ottoman Turkey.
In addition to
artistic influence, the Islamic world also contributed to the scientific growth
of Venetian culture. Many of the classical astronomical and mathematical
treatises known in Venice were originally introduced through Arabic
translations.
These various connections left a very tangible legacy in Venice; by the nineteenth century, some of the most important and largest collections of Islamic art were in Venetian hands.
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| Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors in Damascus, 1511; Venice; oil on canvas, 46½ x 80 in. (118 x 203 cm); Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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