Page - 466 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 9466 Had we still had this painting or Strada’s copy of it, we might have drawn some conclusions as to the extent in which the Neugebäude was reflecting Sulei- man’s otağ-ı hümayun, his imperial tent complex, as perceived by his Christian opponents. As it is, the only correspondence shown in the few available con- temporary images—both European and Ottoman—is that the Sultan’s tent was surrounded by some improvised, crenelated wall of canvas, the ‘zokak’, in- terrupted, in Barthel Behams view, by pavilion-like tents [Fig. 9.39 and 9.40].54 knew it very well because on one of his visits to Mantua he had been lodged for several months in the room where it was kept, and presumably already had sketched it on that occasion. The Index describes other Turkish ‘Castrametationi’ under nrs. 9 and 39; two large tables illustrating the Turkish battle order under nrs. 10 and 11. Some of the material Strada had obtained through the Imperial ambassadors Vrančić (nr. 9) and Busbequius (nr. 11). 54 Drawing in pen and wash, Wien, Museen der Stadt Wien; cf. Kaiser Ferdinand i 2003, cat. nr. V.17, pp. 411–411. Suleiman’s Zeltburg must have been a quite extraordinary spectacle, somewhat akin to the celebrated ‘Field of cloth of gold’ of Francis i and Henry viii: ‘Dur- ing military campaigns the Ottomans established nomadic tent cities, just as the Turks had done in much earlier times. In these cities the tents of the janissaries took the place Figure 9.39 Barthel Beham, Suleiman’s Zeltburg at the siege of Vienna of 1529, detail of a drawing in pen and wash. Figure 9.40 Nakkaş Osman, miniature from Hünernāme, depicting the siege of Vienna of 1529.