Domesticating and displaying fire: the technical and aesthetic evolution of Ottoman fireplaces

Throughout the early modern period, wealth and the desire for domestic comfort shaped an intensely intertwined yet intricate set of concepts centered on the hearth. For Western Europe, scholars have investigated quite thoroughly the increasing demand for warmth and the evolution of heating systems.The situation in the Eastern Mediterranean has attracted less attention, even from specialists of the Ottoman Empire. This essay aims to explore Ottoman wall-mounted fireplaces as a building technology and an opportunity for sculptural expression in luxurious interiors. The main goal is to shed light on technical improvements as well as material and formal changes that took place between the late seventeenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, a period of intense architectural renovation both in the Ottoman capital and its provinces.