Lot 60: JEAN-BAPTISTE VAN MOUR VALENCIENNES 1671 - 1737 CONSTANTINOPLE

JEAN-BAPTISTE VAN MOUR VALENCIENNES 1671 - 1737 CONSTANTINOPLE

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

A DINNER GIVEN BY THE GRAND VIZIER IN HONOUR OF THE FRENCH (?) AMBASSADOR IN THE TOPKAPI PALACE, CONSTANTINOPLE

measurements note
99.5 by 126.5 cm.; 39 1/4 by 49 3/4 in.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Acquired in Turkey in the early 20th Century by a private collector, and thence by descent to his grandson;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 5 July 1996, lot 72, where acquired by the present owner.

NOTE

The scene depicts the exchange of gifts and the dinner held by the Grand Vizier in the Topkapi Palace, which took place before the official presentation and reception of an ambassador to the Sultan himself. The Ambassador is shown seated at the central table opposite the Grand Vizier, flanked by their interpreters, the Dragoman of the Sublime Porte and the First Dragoman of the French Embassy. They do not wear turbans and may therefore have been christians. The nisançi (the offical in charge of endorsing the Sultan's monogram), the defterdar (treasurer) and the admiral preside over the other tables. On the right of the Grand Vizier's table are the kazaskerier (the men of law) seated with members of the Ambassador's retinue. The unusal care with which the features of all the Ottoman officials are represented suggest that they may well be intended as portraits. Above them in the centre of the composition is a small rectangular grilled window, known as 'the window of justice'; its prominence in the painting is due to the fact that it was behind this that the Sultan himself would survey proceedings. The carpets on the ground are European, probably Savonnerie, and may have been official gifts. Two such were, for example, presented by Louis XV in 1721 to Mehmed Efendi, Ottoman Ambassador to Paris.

This is one of a number of closely related versions of this composition painted by Vanmour and his studio. The most famous are that depicting the dinner for the Dutch Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen in the name of the Sultan Ahmed III on 14 September 1727 now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (reproduced in All the paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1976, p. 742, no. A4077) and that depicting the feast accorded the French Ambassador, the Vicomte d'Andrezel in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux (exhibited Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Peintures du 18e Siècle, 1970, no. 28). The basic design of the composition is the same, but with numerous and marked differences in the disposition of the various groups of figures, which vary from painting to painting. Similar depictions of the receptions of the Venetian Ambassador are recorded in the Italian Consulate in Istanbul, and that of the Polish Ambassador in the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. The identity of the present feast is not known for certain; the presence of the Savonnerie carpets suggests a French Ambassador, but as these or very similar carpets recur in all other versions, this cannot be relied upon as proof. Like the versions in Amsterdam and Bordeaux, this painting may very well have been accompanied by a pendant depicting an audience with the Sultan himself.

Vanmour had arrived in Constantinople in 1699 in the suite of the French Ambassador Charles de Ferriol, and remained there for thirty-eight years until his death in 1737. He painted scenes of Ottoman life and costumes, including views of the city and its diplomatic events, and his Recueil de cent Estampes représentant différentes Nations du Levant published in 1714 was enormously successful. In 1725 he was granted the title of Peintre Ordinaire du Roy en Levant in recognition of his achievements. Given the popularity of his paintings it must be assumed that a good proportion of them, including in all probability the present work, must have been executed with the assistance of a large and evidently efficient workshop. Vanmour's work was a very important precursor to Orientalism and turquerie in the West. He evidently exercised a strong influence upon Giovanni Antonio Guardi, whose celebrated series of forty-three oils painted for Field Marshall Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenberg were based upon his designs: four of these are included as the next four lots in this sale.