BY ESAYE LE GILLON, PRAGUE, DATED SAFAR AH 1013/JUNE-JULY 1604

PORTRAIT OF SINAL SHAH KAMLU, AMBASSADOR OF SHAH ABBAS I TO EMPEROR RUDOLF II

Details

BY ESAYE LE GILLON, PRAGUE, DATED SAFAR AH 1013/JUNE-JULY 1604
PORTRAIT OF SINAL SHAH KAMLU, AMBASSADOR OF SHAH ABBAS I TO EMPEROR RUDOLF II
Bodycolour on vellum, depicting Sinal Khan Shamlu half lenght, ambassador of Shah Abbas I to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, with Persian inscription in the sitter's hand below translating 'I wrote this in the month of Safar in the year 1013 to commemorate the occasion of my going as a messenger from the most noble, the most holy, the highest, the most excellent, the blessed shah-i alam ponah (the king who is the protector of the world) to the king... Gurjistan... and the Christian kings. Zaynal Khan Shamlu' (in the lower margin), ascribed Shah 'Abbas in Persian in the upper margin
bodycolour on vellum
6 1/8 x 4¼ in. (15.5 x 10.7 cm.)

Provenance

Gilhofer & Rauschburg, Vienna, 13 March 1902, lot 1764 (part of lot).
Ms. Luise Emele, Vienna, 1905.
Sotheby's, London, 14 December 1987, lot 124.

Literature

Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II, exh. cat., Villa Hügel, Essen, 1988, p. 121, under no. 37.
Patricia L. Baker, Wrought of Gold and Silver, Honorific Garments in Seventeenth Century Iran, in Carpets and Textiles of the Iranian World, 1400-1700, Oxford and Geneva, 2010, fig.7, p.166)

Exhibited

Vienna, 1905 (the description from the catalogue is pasted to the reverse of the frame).

Engraved

In reverse, by Aegidius Sadeler, 1605 (Hollstein 21).

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Lot Essay

This exquisitely detailed portrait and its pendant (lot 250) represent two key members of two Persian diplomatic missions from Shah Abbas I (r.1587-1629). Sinal Khan Shamlu arrived at Rudolf's court in the beginning of the summer 1604, while Mehdi Quli Beg joined his colleague in December. The purpose of their visit was to establish a coalition between Persia and Rudolf's European forces which would join in a two-pronged defence against the Turkish forces then approaching the borders of Europe. The ceremonial nature of the drawings is confirmed by the inscriptions written beneath each portrait in the sitter's own hand, and both portraits seem to have served almost immediately as models for engravings by Aegidius Sadeler the Youns seem to have

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