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Lot Essay
The magnificent four-tiered helmet that Suleyman the Magnificent (1494-1566), 10th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is depicted wearing in this monumental woodcut was the centrepiece of a group of crown jewels produced specifically for the Ottoman ruler by Venetian goldsmiths in cooperation with German entrepreneurs. Although the Ottoman ambassador to Venice may have been consulted, the helmet was not commissioned by Suleyman or his court, but was a commercial and somewhat speculative enterprise. Modelled on the three-stepped tiara of the pope, the four tiers of this splendid headgear symbolised the four kingdoms of his empire and signified Suleyman’s far-reaching reign. The gold helmet was decorated with large precious stones and pearls. By 13 March 1532 it must have been near completion and subsequently went on public display in the Doge’s Palace. On that day, it was seen by the Venetian historian and diarist Marino Sanudo the Younger (1466 – 1536): ‘This morning, I Marino Sanuto, saw on the Rialto something the memory of which ought to be preserved. The Caorlini have produced a very beautiful helmet of gold, full of jewels of very great value, and an aigrette of gold of excellent workmanship, to which are fixed four rubies, four large and very beautiful diamonds worth 10,000 ducats, large pearls each of twelve carats, a long and very beautiful emerald of …[blank] carats, a large and very beautiful turquoise, all of which are costly jewels; and on the aigrette has been put the plumage of an animal which stays and lives in the air, has very soft feathers of various colours, and comes from India; it is called chameleon and is worth a fortune. I have been told that this helmet has been made in order to be sold to the Sultan for over 100,000 ducats. Those who entered into the partnership to have it made are the sons of Pietro Zen, ambassador to the Sultan, Jacomo Corner, son of the Procuratore Giorgio, Pietro Morosini, son of Battista Morosini, the above-mentioned Caorlini and some others. They are going to send it to Constantinople with Marco Antonio Sanudo, to whom they are giving 2,000 ducats for eight months, and the expenses of the journey both ways; when at Constantinople he will be paid … [blank] ducats a month. If he is able to sell it for more than 100,000 ducats he will receive a commission of two percent. The helmet will be sent together with a jewel-studded saddle and saddle cloth ordered by another partnership. These, too, are estimated to be worth 100,000 ducats. They reckon to leave in a fortnight. They will go to Ragusa and then travel by land with a large escort to Constantinople. This sultan is fonder of jewels than any of his predecessors…’ (quoted after Rosand & Muraro, p. 208’; see also Kurz, p. 249ff.)
This fictitious image – the crown had never been worn in Venice by the Sultan - is generally thought to be based on an work by Titian, possibly an unknown preparatory drawing or a painting. A half-length portrait of Suleyman with a very similar profile, but facing left and wearing a large white turban, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is today considered the work of a Venetian painter of Titian’s circle or possibly a contemporary copy after Titian’s original (inv. no. AKG365876).
The portrait of Suleyman with the ceremonial helmet exists in three printed versions:
1) the present woodcut version.
2) another woodcut version, of similar size but wider, with the text SVLIMAN • OTOMAN • REX • TURC • X • in a scroll, tentatively attributed to Giovanni Britto (active circa 1531-50).
3) a small-scale engraving by Agostino Veneziano, facing left, with the same letters as the woodcut above, with the engraver’s initials and the date 1535.
It is generally accepted that Agostino’s engraving is based on the woodcut variant with text. There has however been some debate as to the primacy of the two woodcut versions. Kurz considered the present variant as the original, while Dreyer, Rosand and Muraro, and most recently Aldovini, Landau and Urbini regard the woodcut with the text as the primary version. There are some differences between the two woodcut variants, apart from the scroll: in the version with text, there are clouds in the upper part of the image, some shading below around the head and shoulder, and most of the large precious stones are partially shaded and show reflective highlights. In the present version, the background is left blank, most of the large gems are not filled, possibly intended for hand-colouring, and the helmet is more vertical, allowing for a narrower sheet.
In any case, there can be little doubt that both versions are near-contemporary with the making of the helmet. The paper of the present, joined sheet, identical with the impression in the British Museum, clearly points to the second quarter of the 16th century, albeit not necessarily to Venice. According to the paper historian Peter Bower, this paper was probably made in North-Western Italy, Lombardy or even Genoa. It is possible that an impression of the text variant quickly found its way out of the Veneto to Milan, Genoa or another artistic centre of Northern Italy, and was there reproduced. It does seem strange, however, that the cutter of the present print then chose not to include the name and title of the Sultan.
Whatever the truth, both woodcut versions have survived in very few examples. Of the present variant, we are only aware of two impressions in public collections (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; British Museum, London), and none in private collections. To our knowledge no other example has appeared at auction within the last thirty years.
Of the woodcut variant with the scroll, we know of only one complete example (Metropolitan Museum, New York), and four impressions of the lower part with the head and crown only, lacking the plume and text scroll (Kupferstichkabinett der Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig; British Museum, London; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).
A woodcut of ‘Soliman II, met de hooge kroon en veer, houtsneede, Bartsch onbekend’ (‘Suleyman II, with the high crown and feather, woodcut, unknown to Bartsch’) was sold in the auction of the prints collection of Count Moritz von Fries (1777-1826) in Amsterdam on 21 June 1824 as lot 283 (Fl. 25; to Roos), but it is impossible to know which of the two versions this was.
The present woodcut of Suleyman the Magnificent is a highly important and scarce life-time portrait of the great Sultan, an extremely rare example of monumental printmaking in Northern Italy, and a fascinating document of the economic, political and cultural interrelations between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 16th century.
This fictitious image – the crown had never been worn in Venice by the Sultan - is generally thought to be based on an work by Titian, possibly an unknown preparatory drawing or a painting. A half-length portrait of Suleyman with a very similar profile, but facing left and wearing a large white turban, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is today considered the work of a Venetian painter of Titian’s circle or possibly a contemporary copy after Titian’s original (inv. no. AKG365876).
The portrait of Suleyman with the ceremonial helmet exists in three printed versions:
1) the present woodcut version.
2) another woodcut version, of similar size but wider, with the text SVLIMAN • OTOMAN • REX • TURC • X • in a scroll, tentatively attributed to Giovanni Britto (active circa 1531-50).
3) a small-scale engraving by Agostino Veneziano, facing left, with the same letters as the woodcut above, with the engraver’s initials and the date 1535.
It is generally accepted that Agostino’s engraving is based on the woodcut variant with text. There has however been some debate as to the primacy of the two woodcut versions. Kurz considered the present variant as the original, while Dreyer, Rosand and Muraro, and most recently Aldovini, Landau and Urbini regard the woodcut with the text as the primary version. There are some differences between the two woodcut variants, apart from the scroll: in the version with text, there are clouds in the upper part of the image, some shading below around the head and shoulder, and most of the large precious stones are partially shaded and show reflective highlights. In the present version, the background is left blank, most of the large gems are not filled, possibly intended for hand-colouring, and the helmet is more vertical, allowing for a narrower sheet.
In any case, there can be little doubt that both versions are near-contemporary with the making of the helmet. The paper of the present, joined sheet, identical with the impression in the British Museum, clearly points to the second quarter of the 16th century, albeit not necessarily to Venice. According to the paper historian Peter Bower, this paper was probably made in North-Western Italy, Lombardy or even Genoa. It is possible that an impression of the text variant quickly found its way out of the Veneto to Milan, Genoa or another artistic centre of Northern Italy, and was there reproduced. It does seem strange, however, that the cutter of the present print then chose not to include the name and title of the Sultan.
Whatever the truth, both woodcut versions have survived in very few examples. Of the present variant, we are only aware of two impressions in public collections (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; British Museum, London), and none in private collections. To our knowledge no other example has appeared at auction within the last thirty years.
Of the woodcut variant with the scroll, we know of only one complete example (Metropolitan Museum, New York), and four impressions of the lower part with the head and crown only, lacking the plume and text scroll (Kupferstichkabinett der Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig; British Museum, London; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).
A woodcut of ‘Soliman II, met de hooge kroon en veer, houtsneede, Bartsch onbekend’ (‘Suleyman II, with the high crown and feather, woodcut, unknown to Bartsch’) was sold in the auction of the prints collection of Count Moritz von Fries (1777-1826) in Amsterdam on 21 June 1824 as lot 283 (Fl. 25; to Roos), but it is impossible to know which of the two versions this was.
The present woodcut of Suleyman the Magnificent is a highly important and scarce life-time portrait of the great Sultan, an extremely rare example of monumental printmaking in Northern Italy, and a fascinating document of the economic, political and cultural interrelations between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 16th century.