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Lorck's Royal Commission
A View of a Foreign Culture
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If a King offered to finance your overseas education provided you later served His Majesty as court artist, would you accept the offer? Danish-born Melchoir Lorck (1526/27-1588?) took King Christian III's commission, but Lorck didn't keep up his end of the bargain. |
What happened and his travels and works are the subject of a recently published four-volume set written by Erik Fischer, the former long-term head of The Department of Prints and Drawings at Copenhagen's Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK). Forlaget Vandkunsten published the set. The museum in turn has organized an exhibition looking at Lorck's works, writings and explorations. Fischer plans to publish the fifth and final volume in 2010.
On the King's dime Lorck visited the major artistic centers in Germany, Holland and Italy. Once the funds ran out he was supposed to return to Denmark and work for the King. Instead Lorck worked for minor princely courts until he made his way to Vienna. Here Ferdinand I, later the Holy Roman Emperor, hired Lorck in 1555.
Title: Portrait of Christ, 1570
Artist: Melchior Lorck (Danish 1526 - 1588)
Permanent Collection and Image Courtesy: Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ferdinand ordered Lorck to accompany a diplomatic mission to Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey. The goal was to negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire. Lorck's role was to record the Ottoman's way of life to improve Western knowledge of the culture of Turkey.
After the artist returned to Vienna, in 1559, he created 128 woodcuts of the sketches of his Constantinople adventures. These woodcuts are collectively known as The Turkish Publication. Lorck didn't complete the job nor were the woodcuts published in a manner he had envisioned.
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The artist returned to Denmark in 1580 and found favor with the new Danish King Frederik II. Wanderlust struck, within two years Lorck traveled to the Gold Coast in Africa. |
It wasn't until 1626, years after Lorck's death, that The Turkish Publication was first printed.
The SMK's exhibit includes nearly all of the woodcuts from The Turkish Publication. It's remarkable in many ways including Lorck's ability to translate a foreign culture into a pictorial language that his fellow Europeans could easily understand.
A View of a Foreign Culture
Melchior Lorck in Turkey 1555-59
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen:
through August 3, 2008