Tents, Turbans and Tribulations: The Ottoman in Early Modern Viennese Performance Culture
This thesis delves into the intricate portrayal of Ottomans as othered characters within the context of Viennese performance and festival culture during the early modern period. It explores how the evolution of the depiction of the Ottoman within set and costume design as well as festival decorations reflects shifting perceptions of otherness over this period. The chosen timeframe encircles the first Siege of Vienna in 1529 and concludes around 1800, encapsulating the pivotal transition of the Ottoman from a foreign threat to a European equal. This transformation, however, was not linear, but rather an oscillation reflecting conflicting ideas and desires. Specific trends and material practices of othering will be analyzed including the use of brownface, masks and costume elements meant to distort bodily features. Fantasies on harems and Ottoman women also play a large role in modes of exoticization seen onstage, which were intertwined with imperialist and colonialist structures.
Alexander McCargar is a scenographer and art historian currently completing his doctorate at the University of Vienna, Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies. In 2020, he earned his MFA in Stage Design from the Yale School of Drama and previously received degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts with a minor in Art History from Rhode Island School of Design. In 2020, he was selected for a Beinecke Library Graduate Research Fellowship for work on depictions of non-European characters in European opera. He was a 2015-16 Fulbright Grant recipient with a project that focused on opera as a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural art form. During this time, he was a guest student in the department of Stage and Film design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Professor Bernhard Kleber. Alexander is a regular collaborator with the Theatermuseum Wien and his 2022 article about drawings in their collection was awarded the international Ricciardi Prize by Master Drawings. As a scenographer, he has designed the stages for Maria Stuarda at the Slovak National Opera, Circé (1694) with the Boston Early Music Festival and Handel’s Ariodante for the Theaterakademie August Everding.
»The Ottoman Influence and Other Modes of Exoticism in the Drawings of Daniele Antonio Bertoli« (Working Title), in: Antonio Daniele Bertoli. Die Figurinen des ›Disegnatore da Camera‹ seiner Majestät, KHM-Museumsverband, Theatermuseum, [forthcoming 2025].
»Plumes of Power: The Native American in Habsburg Festival Culture before 1700«, in: Habsburg Encounters with Native America, Central European University Press [forthcoming 2025].
»Copy or Coincidence? Pietro Righini and the Bibiena Legacy«, in: Master Drawings 60 (2), p. 183–200. [This article was awarded the 2022 Ricciardi Prize for best art historical paper on the topic of drawings from a scholar under 40.]
Representations of the Ottoman occur frequently throughout European visual culture during the early modern period. Stereotypes, repeated motifs and battle scenes abound across painting, sculpture and the decorative arts. Harder to decipher, however, is how portrayals of Ottomans were propagated within structures of performance culture.