The Fabricating the World series explores three examples of the impact of textiles from the Islamic world on interior decoration and fashion in Europe from the 16th century to the present day. Robust trade connections and artistic exchange between Europe and the East have been documented by merchants as far back as the 11th century in Fatimid Egypt. Such exchanges increased in the Middle Ages and especially during the Renaissance when material culture from the Middle East in particular had a major aesthetic impact on European art and fashion.
The first lecture focuses on the large numbers of well-preserved antique Ottoman carpets still hanging in Lutheran churches in Transylvania and on the way noblemen in Poland adopted eastern forms of dress in the early modern era, combining original Ottoman costumes with locally made accessories that imitated Ottoman and Persian fabrics.
Susan Scollay is an art historian specialising in Islamic art and architecture and in historic textiles. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and honorary fellow in art history and curatorship at the University of Melbourne. She has been a regular speaker at The Johnston Collection since 2007 and has convened the Fabricating the World textile series since 2018.
