Portrait of Hurrem Sultan, called Roxelana (c. 1502-1558), bust-length, in a jewelled headdress

This portrait has traditionally been identified as Hurrem Sultan, known in the West as Roxelana, the legal wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566). Depictions of the famously beautiful Sultana were widely known in the West from the 1530s onwards; a print by Matteo Pagani (fl. 1538-1562) published in Venice circa 1540-50 relates closely to the present portrait and may plausibly have been the inspiration for the artist. The Portrait of a Lady by Titian (Florida, Ringling Museum), depicting a woman in a green over-gown and similar conical jewelled headdress to that seen here, has also traditionally been described as Hurrem Sultan. In all these works, as is the case in portraits of other prominent female members of the Sultan's family, Roxelana is depicted as the Renaissance Western ideal of oriental beauty, hovering between reality and fantasy.
'La Sultana Rossa' was indeed saved by her feted charms; having been kidnapped from her home in modern-day Ukraine by Crimean Tatars she was chosen by Suleiman's mother at the market in Istanbul as a gift for her son. She rose rapidly to become the 'Haseki Sultan' or 'favourite concubine' of the harem, the first consort to hold this title. She was also the first woman to move from the harem in the Eski Saray (Old Palace) to the Topkapı Palace, which had previously been forbidden to women as a place where government affairs were conducted. Suleiman expressed his devotion to his wife in a poem written under his pen name, Muhibbi, where he called her 'My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love'.