Stereotyping the enemy : Turcica at St John's

Abstract

The reputation of the Ottomans was firmly established in the fifteenth century, giving rise to an artistic Turcica, appearing in many works of art. An example from the Netherlands is a series of woodcuts of Turks on horseback by Jan Swart of Groningen, in particular a woodcut Solimanus imperator Turcharum 1526 of Sultan Süleyman and his cortege of 1526. Throughout the rich iconography at St John’s Co-Cathedral at Valletta, Malta, one may find caricatures of the ‘Turk’ and ‘Moor.’ Their facial ‘grammar’, their physiognomic resemblances, were transformed into mere representations and caricatures, giving way to stereotyping ethnic groups