diff --git a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.hpp b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.hpp
index 8f7f6c4dfb..990deb87de 100644
--- a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.hpp
+++ b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.hpp
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@
 
 #include "opencv2/core/bufferpool.hpp"
 
+#ifdef CV_CXX11
+#include <type_traits>
+#endif
+
 namespace cv
 {
 
@@ -988,7 +992,8 @@ public:
 #ifdef CV_CXX11
     /** @overload
     */
-    template<typename _Tp> explicit Mat(const std::initializer_list<_Tp> list);
+    template<typename _Tp, typename = typename std::enable_if<std::is_arithmetic<_Tp>::value>::type>
+    explicit Mat(const std::initializer_list<_Tp> list);
 #endif
 
 #ifdef CV_CXX_STD_ARRAY
diff --git a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.inl.hpp b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.inl.hpp
index 2df2e40102..f1d69b4b04 100644
--- a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.inl.hpp
+++ b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/mat.inl.hpp
@@ -575,7 +575,7 @@ Mat::Mat(const std::vector<_Tp>& vec, bool copyData)
 }
 
 #ifdef CV_CXX11
-template<typename _Tp> inline
+template<typename _Tp, typename> inline
 Mat::Mat(const std::initializer_list<_Tp> list)
     : flags(MAGIC_VAL | DataType<_Tp>::type | CV_MAT_CONT_FLAG), dims(2), rows((int)list.size()),
       cols(1), data(0), datastart(0), dataend(0), datalimit(0), allocator(0), u(0), size(&rows), step(0)