‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Percy Blythe Shelly (1818).

'Orientalism' is the name given to a romanticised and even meretricious vison of 'The East' that developed following Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1799. From about this time Western adventurers and explorers began to penetrate the back-blocks of Asia and the Middle East, often followed by poets and painters. In fact this process of ‘discovery' was not only commercially driven, but also by a genuine lust for knowledge, to fill in the blank spaces on the maps. And, of course, as well as cruelty and squalor, there were wondrous things to be discovered and described, as the West learned, sometimes for the first time, of distant, ancient and sophisticated civilisations...

See More Images: Click OZYMANDIAS (below) to see all related images, click related searchable terms for more specific images, or use the Search Box at the top of the page.