Melchior Lorck’s Identities

In 1555, Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg employed the Danish-German artist Melchior Lorck (1556/27-1583) to travel to Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire. Until then knowledge of the Ottomans was largely based on prejudice. Lorck’s commission (seemingly) was to document the foreign culture in pictures and thus providing the Emperor with reliable information about the Ottoman culture. After his return Lorck made drawings and woodcuts with motifs rooted in the visit. In these pictures, Lorck presents various identities: as a Christian Westerner, as a Lutheran, and as a modern Renaissance artist. This article discusses how Lorck manifests these identities in his works.