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拍品专文
Born in Padua in 1854, Fauto Zonaro began painting as a child and distinguished himself from his peers at an early age. He trained at the Verona Academy of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Fine Arts in Rome, and eventually came to be widely revered throughout Italy. He was a key figure among a small but important group of Italian Orientalist painters that included Alberto Pasini, Pompeo Mariani and Amedeo Preziosi. Lured by his own romantic notions of the Orient, Zonaro arrived in Constantinople in 1891. Upon his arrival in the city, it was said that Zonaro was 'awake day and night', eager to capture the daily activities of its people, its busy marketplaces, the ships and frigates along the Bosphorous, and the unique landscapes from which he gained an optimal vantage point of all sides of the city.
Zonaro's successes culminated in 1896 when he was appointed chief artist to the Ottoman court by Sultan Abdülhamid II, to whom he had been introduced by the Italian Ambassador Panza. As court painter, Zonaro donned traditional Turkish dress and enjoyed many privileges, including a residence on the Bosphorus. During his tenure, which lasted just over a decade, he created numerous portraits for the Imperial family and many historical paintings and decorations for their various palaces. When, in 1908, the Sultan was unseated and the Second Constitutional Monarchy was declared, Zonaro reluctantly fled Istanbul with his family and returned to Italy around 1910. The artist subsequently settled in San Remo, where he stayed until his death in 1929.
Painted around 1900, the present work remained unpublished for nearly a century until its recent appearance in the mid 1990s in an exhibition in Turin. Previously known only from an archival photograph, the painting is clearly identifiable hanging among other works in Zonaro's Constantinople studio (fig.1).
Zonaro has been hailed by critics as "a poet of light", and this masterful veduta of the Dolmabahçe Mosque shows the artist at the height of his artistic prowess. The canvas is infused with an incredible luminosity which is effectuated by the brilliant blue of the Bosphorus as well as the rendering of the clouds, which reflect the late day sun as it filters over the landscape. Perhaps more than any other Italian Orientalist painter, Zonaro imbued his canvases with a bolder, more Impressionist touch that communicated his pure encounter with light and its changing effects on landscape. There is a smaller oil sketch (Private Collection, fig. 2) depicting the same scene, which must have been executed prior to this work. It attests that Zonaro was sketching en plein air from a vantage point looking down on the mosque.
The Dolmabahçe Mosque is located on the Bosphorus in the Southern corner of the Dolmabahçe Palace complex. Construction of the mosque began in 1853 at the behest of Sultan Abdulmecid's mother, Bezmialem Valide Sultan. Completed in 1855, it is one of the country's most highly decorated Baroque-style mosques. The circular arrangement of the windows, which resembles a peacock's tail, remains its most unusual but defining architectural feature.
Zonaro's successes culminated in 1896 when he was appointed chief artist to the Ottoman court by Sultan Abdülhamid II, to whom he had been introduced by the Italian Ambassador Panza. As court painter, Zonaro donned traditional Turkish dress and enjoyed many privileges, including a residence on the Bosphorus. During his tenure, which lasted just over a decade, he created numerous portraits for the Imperial family and many historical paintings and decorations for their various palaces. When, in 1908, the Sultan was unseated and the Second Constitutional Monarchy was declared, Zonaro reluctantly fled Istanbul with his family and returned to Italy around 1910. The artist subsequently settled in San Remo, where he stayed until his death in 1929.
Painted around 1900, the present work remained unpublished for nearly a century until its recent appearance in the mid 1990s in an exhibition in Turin. Previously known only from an archival photograph, the painting is clearly identifiable hanging among other works in Zonaro's Constantinople studio (fig.1).
Zonaro has been hailed by critics as "a poet of light", and this masterful veduta of the Dolmabahçe Mosque shows the artist at the height of his artistic prowess. The canvas is infused with an incredible luminosity which is effectuated by the brilliant blue of the Bosphorus as well as the rendering of the clouds, which reflect the late day sun as it filters over the landscape. Perhaps more than any other Italian Orientalist painter, Zonaro imbued his canvases with a bolder, more Impressionist touch that communicated his pure encounter with light and its changing effects on landscape. There is a smaller oil sketch (Private Collection, fig. 2) depicting the same scene, which must have been executed prior to this work. It attests that Zonaro was sketching en plein air from a vantage point looking down on the mosque.
The Dolmabahçe Mosque is located on the Bosphorus in the Southern corner of the Dolmabahçe Palace complex. Construction of the mosque began in 1853 at the behest of Sultan Abdulmecid's mother, Bezmialem Valide Sultan. Completed in 1855, it is one of the country's most highly decorated Baroque-style mosques. The circular arrangement of the windows, which resembles a peacock's tail, remains its most unusual but defining architectural feature.