Lot 53: JACOPO LIGOZZI VERONA 1547 - 1627 FLORENCE

A MARRIED GREEK WOMAN WITH A RAM

measurements note
11 by 8 3/4 in.; 27.9 by 22.7 cm.

inscribed upper left Lυo Habitto delle done greche maritate di Costantinopoli et Pera

tempera and shell gold, with traces of black chalk, on paper

PROVENANCE

Mrs. S. K. Legare, Washington, D.C.;
By whose Estate sold, London, Christie's, April 18, 1989, lot 12.

NOTE

The inscription identifies this figure as a married Greek woman, dressed in the costume of Constantinople and Pera. The neighborhood of Pera, across the Golden Horn from the city of Istanbul proper, had been settled since antiquity and in the days of the Byzantine empire was the quarter in which European merchants (mostly the Genoese and Venetians) had lived and operated. After the fall of the city to the Ottomans, the area continued to be inhabited by a mix of people, and many of the Greeks who had lived in the main part of the city moved to the district.

The Greek women of Pera clothed themselves opulently. Nicolay in his description of them notes their lavish dress:

"Sono gli habiti delle donne, & donzelle Greche, & Perotte tanto ricchi & magnifici, che à chi non avesse veduti sarebbe incredibile. Perciò che no[n] solo pongono ogni lor cura ad essere brave & ben parate, ma che è il peggio spesse siate hanno addosso tutta la loro sostanza , & havere anrdando [sic] per la terra, per le chiese, ò ne' bagni. [The costumes of the Greek and Periot women and maidens are so rich and magnificent that to those who had not seen it, it would be unbelievable. For not only do they take every care to be well and finely attired, but what is the worst is that they often wear all of the riches in their possession on their back, and having done so go out about town, to church or to the baths]."