Speaker: Paolo Girardelli
Pietro Montani was born in Trieste but his family originated in the Piedmontese mountains. In 1832, when he was 4 years old, he moved to Galata with his family. His father is a construction and plumbing/tin craftsman, while Pietro is moving towards a more artistic and intellectual career. In 1873, Montani authored one of the first theoretical studies on Ottoman architecture. He played an important role in creating a "modern" architectural style that represented the Ottoman identity during the reign of Sultan Abdulaziz.
Paolo Girardelli is a professor of art and architectural history in the Department of History of Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, were he is based since 1999. He was a Fellow in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT in 2005-06, chercheur invité at INHA (Paris) in the Spring 2013, invited scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence in 2016, and, in 2018-19, visiting professor in the Art and Art History Department of UNC Chapel Hill. His research and main publications focus on European presence in the architectural and visual culture of the late Ottoman empire. He is co-editor, with Ezio Godoli, of the volume Italian Architects and Builders in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Design across Borders, and guest editor of a thematic issue of Architecture Beyond Europe on the space of diplomacy, both published in 2017.