Visual arts

From the late 15th century onwards artists from the Netherlands depicted Ottomans, and scenes from the Ottoman Empire, in their work. These works were often (re)produced for printed books. Dutch libraries, archives and museums have large collections of drawings, gravures (Marius Bauer), paintings, and books (Cornelis de Bruyn) with Ottoman subjects (ranging from single gravures or drawings to illustrated travelogues and complete costume books). A small number of diplomats also made interesting drawings in personal notebooks.

By far the best known collection of paintings was made by Jean-Baptiste Vanmour for the Dutch ambassador Cornelis Calkoen (nowadays to be found in the Rijksmuseum). Other important collections of paintings belonged to the Van Lennep and De Hochepied families in Izmir, and to other Dutch diplomats. Two of the more interesting paintings are the panoramas of Ankara and Izmir (to be found in the Rijkmuseum and Tropenmuseum). The rich collections of Dutch libraries and museums also contain famous works by non-Dutch artists, such as Melchior Lorck (Panorama of Istanbul, Leiden University Library).