Lot Essay
Born in Valenciennes in 1671, Jean-Baptiste Vanmour left for Constantinople in 1699 with the French Ambassador Charles de Ferriol. He remained there for 38 years until his death in 1737, painting scenes of Ottoman life, local costumes, views of Constantinople and depictions of diplomatic events. His Recueil de Cent Estampes représentant différentes Nations du Levant, commissioned by Ferriol and published in 1714, was enormously successful and was published in at least five languages. In 1625 he was granted the extraordinary title of Peintre Ordinaire du Roy en Levant in recognition of both his and the Levant's importance to the French government.
Perhaps the most famous group of paintings by Vanmour and his studio is the series of works now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which once belonged to Cornelis Calkoen, the Dutch Ambassador to the Sublime Porte from 1725 to 1743 (see All the paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1976, pp. 741-9, nos. A 1996-A 2039).
Among the Calkoen pictures is a depiction of a feast offered in his honour by the Grand Vizier which is, except for a few details, very similar to the present picture. A second well-known representation of this subject is The Dinner given in honour of the French Ambassador, Vicomte d'Andrezel on 17 October 1774, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux (A. Boppe, Les Peintres du Bosphore au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 28, illustrated in colour). Representations of the reception of a Venetian and a Polish Ambassador hang in the Italian Consulate General in Istanbul and the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and others are in private collections (see P. Mansell in the catalogue of the exhibition, At the Sublime Porte, Ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire (1580-1880), Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London, 11 May-3 June 1988, pp. 42-4).
At an ambassador's reception, gifts were exchanged and a dinner was held by the Grand Vizier before the ambassador was officially presented to the Sultan. In the present picture the ambassador is seated at the central table opposite the Grand Vizier. On either side of them are their interpreters, the Dragoman of the Sublime Porte and the First Dragoman of the French Embassy. Evidently they are Christians since they wear Ottoman dress, but not turbans. The nisançi (the official in charge of endorsing the Sultan's monogram), the chief defterdar (treasurer) and the admiral preside over the other tables. The kazaskerier (the men of law), who are seated to the right of the Grand Vizier's table, would usually 'affect with great rigour not to eat with Christians' (ibid, p. 90, no. 18), but are seen here with a member of the ambassador's retinue. The ornate grilled window above them (or 'window of justice') occupies an important position in the picture compositionally since it is behind this window that the Sultan would stand, surveying the scene below him. The carpets on the ground are certainly European, and probably Savonnerie, and may well be the two unspecified carpets presented in 1721 by King Louis XIV to Mehmed Efendi, Ottoman Ambassador to Paris.
Vanmour was an important precursor of Orientalism and turquerie in the West, his influence extending both into painting and the decorative arts. He exercized a particularly strong influence on Antonio Guardi, who executed a series of 43 oils based on Vanmour's engravings for the great patron Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice, 28 Aug.-21 Nov. 1993).
Perhaps the most famous group of paintings by Vanmour and his studio is the series of works now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which once belonged to Cornelis Calkoen, the Dutch Ambassador to the Sublime Porte from 1725 to 1743 (see All the paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1976, pp. 741-9, nos. A 1996-A 2039).
Among the Calkoen pictures is a depiction of a feast offered in his honour by the Grand Vizier which is, except for a few details, very similar to the present picture. A second well-known representation of this subject is The Dinner given in honour of the French Ambassador, Vicomte d'Andrezel on 17 October 1774, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux (A. Boppe, Les Peintres du Bosphore au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 28, illustrated in colour). Representations of the reception of a Venetian and a Polish Ambassador hang in the Italian Consulate General in Istanbul and the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and others are in private collections (see P. Mansell in the catalogue of the exhibition, At the Sublime Porte, Ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire (1580-1880), Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London, 11 May-3 June 1988, pp. 42-4).
At an ambassador's reception, gifts were exchanged and a dinner was held by the Grand Vizier before the ambassador was officially presented to the Sultan. In the present picture the ambassador is seated at the central table opposite the Grand Vizier. On either side of them are their interpreters, the Dragoman of the Sublime Porte and the First Dragoman of the French Embassy. Evidently they are Christians since they wear Ottoman dress, but not turbans. The nisançi (the official in charge of endorsing the Sultan's monogram), the chief defterdar (treasurer) and the admiral preside over the other tables. The kazaskerier (the men of law), who are seated to the right of the Grand Vizier's table, would usually 'affect with great rigour not to eat with Christians' (ibid, p. 90, no. 18), but are seen here with a member of the ambassador's retinue. The ornate grilled window above them (or 'window of justice') occupies an important position in the picture compositionally since it is behind this window that the Sultan would stand, surveying the scene below him. The carpets on the ground are certainly European, and probably Savonnerie, and may well be the two unspecified carpets presented in 1721 by King Louis XIV to Mehmed Efendi, Ottoman Ambassador to Paris.
Vanmour was an important precursor of Orientalism and turquerie in the West, his influence extending both into painting and the decorative arts. He exercized a particularly strong influence on Antonio Guardi, who executed a series of 43 oils based on Vanmour's engravings for the great patron Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice, 28 Aug.-21 Nov. 1993).