Mavi Boncuk | Türckische Cammer (Turkish Chamber)
It is twenty metres long, eight metres wide and six metres high: It is the seventeenth-century tent of silk and gilded leather, today the highlight of the Türckische Cammer in the Dresden Residenzschloss (Royal Palace). The tent came to Dresden as early as 1729, at a time when numerous European courts were amassing collections of spoils coming from the Turkish Wars. Today the Türckische Cammer in Dresden is one of the most significant collections of Ottoman art outside Turkey. This is due in large part to the extraordinarily good documentation of the history of the objects as well as to the many exhibits from the sixteenth century, which can be found nowhere else in such abundance.
Exhibition Site : Residenzschloss
The collection grew, however, not so much from wars as from diplomatic gifts, informed purchases and commissioned works. More than anyone, August the Strong loved the orient: As a Saxon elector and later king of Poland, he often staged himself as a sultan, sent members of his staff on shopping expeditions to Constantinople, and even imported camels and Arabian horses with richly decorated riding gear for the baroque feasts at his court.
Since 2010, approximately 600 objects from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries have been on show in Dresden’s Residenzschloss in a space measuring 750 square metres. Alongside two impressive tents, opulently decorated bridles, saddles, helmets and weapons delight the eye of the beholder, as do four collapsible drinking cups made of leather: These examples of the formerly mass-produced item have only survived in Dresden. The darkened rooms and the eight life-size horses carved of wood underscore the effect of the utterly unique objects, making a visit to the Türckische Cammer a very special experience.
Excerpt from Cornucopia | Issue 43, 2010 Shrines and Sanctuaries
The Elector’s Turkish Treasures
A visit to the Türckische Cammer in Dresden
The city of Dresden is now home to one of the finest displays of Turkish art and armoury
"Dresden was infamously left in ruins by Allied raids in 1945, but as the train pulls across the Elbe, the skyline still captures the thrill of its Baroque heyday. It is a miracle that there is anything left to see in Dresden’s museums, but there is: whole collections were hidden in castles along the Elbe, and after the war Russia returned what the Red Army had carted off. Now 70 years after it was closed, the palace’s ‘Türckische Cammer’ reveals Ottoman arms and armory in all their glory.
Saxony’s taste for things Turkish goes back to the 1570s, when David Ungnad[1] was imperial envoy to Istanbul. The ambassadors’ caravanserai, which Ungnad had had repaired, can be seen in his secret Türckenbuch. A Saxon envoy in his party took home a gold-damascened Ottoman sword. The gift was clearly appreciated. The Electress then gave her husband a Hungarian sabre one Christmas, and the Medicis and the Dukes of Savoy showered him with Oriental gifts.
August the Strong (1670–1733), most colourful of Saxony’s Electors, often dressed as a sultan and would send his Turkish valet to buy kaftans in Istanbul. The painting above shows the military review at Zelthain, north of Dresden. It evoked memories of the 1683 Ottoman siege of Vienna, and involved 27,000 men, including Saxon ‘Janissaries’ armed with sabres. There were 1,051 tents in all."
[1] SEE ALSO:
Stopping an Ottoman Spy in Late Sixteenth-Century Istanbul: David Ungnad, Markus Penckner, and Austrian-Habsburg Intelligence in the Ottoman Capital
In: Rethinking Europe
Author: Tobias P. Graf
Page Count: 173–193
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401921_011
Abstract
For several months in 1575, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II’s ambassador in Istanbul was engaged with reporting on, and attempting to prevent, an Ottoman spy mission entrusted to the recent convert to Islam Markus Penckner. The surviving sources afford valuable insights into the practicalities of Austrian-Habsburg intelligence against those they considered the ‘hereditary enemy’ and sheds light on the cooperation of the two branches of the House of Habsburg in such matters. At the same time, the episode provided an opportunity for the diplomat in question, David Ungnad, to demonstrate his competence as an information gatherer, his extensive network across the Habsburgs’ realms, and thus his value for the dynasty. This chapter argues that such qualities were valuable resources for actors like Ungnad when pursuing their own goals.
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