A RARE PAIR OF ITALIAN WHITE MARBLE RELIEF PORTRAITS OF AN OTTOMAN SULTAN AND HIS WIFE

A RARE PAIR OF ITALIAN WHITE MARBLE RELIEF PORTRAITS OF AN OTTOMAN SULTAN AND HIS WIFE

ATTRIBUTED TO ORAZIO MARINALI (VENETIAN 1643-1720), LATE 17TH / EARLY 18TH CENTURY

a facing pair of oval portrait medallions of an Ottoman Sultan or famous commander, depicted smoking a hookah pipe and wearing a turban and an ermine lined jacket together with its companion his wife or Sultana with her right hand tucked inside her clothes, each in a carved pine frame with traces of gilding (2)

13.5 x 9.8cm

Provenance

Parker & Morris: The Art of Decorating.

Catalogue Note

On stylistic and typological grounds, this unpublished pair of portrait reliefs is the work of a famous and prolific Vicentine (i.e. Venetian) sculptor, Orazio Marinali, who is famed for this particular sideline. It is derived from the Renaissance tradition of producing series of images of famous men - or ‘Worthies’ as they were dubbed in English - often in the form of bronze medallions.

For centuries Venice, by means of its fleet, was occupied in trying to withstand the forces of the Ottoman Empire and its powerful navy, which culminated in the 16^th and 17^th centuries in two critical victories, almost a century apart: by sea the Battle of Lepanto 1571 and by land the Siege of Vienna (1683). It is therefore likely that these images depict leaders of the defeated hostile forces, either rulers or commanders of the hostile forces who had been crucial. They are probably taken from paintings or engravings of the respective periods.

For the Battle of Lepanto these would be either the Sultan, Selim II, or Ali Pasha, Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet; or for the Siege of Vienna, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha. The latter suffered an ignominious end, being beheaded in Belgrade on 25 December – Christmas Day! - on the orders of the Sultan, to whom his head was brought on a silver salver. This second resounding defeat by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, and John III Sobieski, King of Poland, marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman domination in eastern Europe.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LOT IS TO BE OFFERED WITHOUT RESERVE.