Portrait of a gentleman, full-length, in Ottoman robes, a page beside him, on a terrace before a Solomonic column

The visit of the Turkish Ambassador, Hagi Hussein Effendi, to Naples from 30 August to 18 October 1741, accompanied by his exotic court with its extravagant and colourful dress, started a fashion amongst the Neapolitan establishment and the milordi residing in the city. Bonito's portrait of the Ambassador in the Prado, signed and dated 1741, suggests that he was the ideal artist to portray the fashionably dressed (J. Urrea Fernandez, La Pintura Italiana del Siglo XVIII en Espana, s.l., 1977, p. 309, pl. xcv), however, this picture is one of the few known by the artist of an as yet to be identified, probably English, visitor.

De Dominici records in his Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architeeti Napoletani (Naples, 1745, III, p. 714) that 'fu proposto alla Maestà del nostro clementissimo Re per dover fare i ritratti dell'inviato del gran Sultano con suoi cortigiani, i quali riuscirono cosi naturali e ben situati insieme, sedendo l'inviato sul cuscino, adattato sul suolo su un ricco tappeto, com' /e loro usanza. Venuto poi a Napoli 'ambasciatore del re di Tripoli, ordin/o sua Maest/a che anche di costui e di sue genti ne fussero effigiati i ritratti dal Bonito, che in tela simile a figure intere egli dipinse naturalissimo.'

A portrait by Bonito of The Ambassador from Tripoli was sold in these Rooms, 14 December 1990, lot 30 (£170,000).

We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution on the basis of a transparency.