Dr. Agnes Stillfried is a Curator of Education and Communication at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. She has published on various aspects of Baroque Art, contributed to a number of museum catalogues and publications, and has taught courses in Art History as an adjunct professor both at the American University in Cairo and at the American University in Kuwait.
In her lecture, she expanded on the topic: “Western perceptions of the Ottoman East: Selected Renaissance artworks from the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna”.
The collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum were assembled over five centuries by the Habsburgs, Austria’s former imperial family. Though much of their long common history was marked by conflict, there were also diplomatic and trade missions, artistic exchanges and a deep fascination with the exotic splendour of the Ottoman court that profoundly impacted Western artworks.