Giovanni Antonio Guardi Vienna 1699 - 1760 Venice

One of a set of forty-three quadri Turchi painted in 1742-3 for Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), Palazzo Loredan a San Trovaso, Venice;
Bequeathed to his nephew Christian Günther von der Schulenburg, Berlin;
Thence by family inheritance and descent.

Berlin, Europa und der Orient 800-1900, 1989, no. 13/2;
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, 28 August - 21 November 1993, no. 23.

Inventario Generale della Galleria di S.E. Maresciallo Co: di Schulenburg..., Venice, 30 June 1741, addendum: Tableaux achetés après le sudit Cattalogue, 1746 (Hannover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Depositum 82, Abt. III, no. 37), "Guardi - 43 Tabl rappt: les Coutumes des Turcs" (cited in A. Binion, 1990, p. 245, see below);
Quadri e Ritratti Essistenti nelle differenti Camere del Palazzo del Defonto Eccellentissimo Maresciallo, Venice, August 1747 (Hannover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Depositum 82, Abt. III, no. 33), "Guardi - Quaranta tre quadri rapresentano costumi dei Turchi" (in the 'Camera del Sigr Ten.te Col.o Arcoleo' in Palazzo Loredan a San Trovaso; cited in Binion, op. cit., p. 259);
A. Morassi, "Four newly discovered Turkish scenes", in Apollo, vol. XCIX, no. 146, 1974, pp. 274-8, reproduced in colour plate IV and a detail p. 278, fig. 4 (as A courtesan entertaining a soldier);
Europa und der Orient 800-1900, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 1989, p. 831, cat. no. 13/2;
A. Binion, La Galleria Scomparsa del Maresciallo Von der Schulenburg, Milan 1990, pp. 107, 112, foonotes 15-19, pp. 245 and 259;
F. Pedrocco & F. Montecuccoli degli Erri, Antonio Guardi, Milan 1992, p. 131, cat. no. 76, reproduced p. 213, fig. 94;
A. Bettagno, in Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 28 August - 21 November 1993, pp. 74-5, cat. no. 15, reproduced in colour.

The subject, which had long been erroneously identified as A courtesan entertaining a soldier, was identified by Bettagno (see Literature) on the basis of its relation to an engraving by Gérard Jean-Baptiste Scotin (1671-1716), after Jean-Baptiste van Mour's design, for Ferriol's Receuil (see Fig. 1). The engraving's description is self-explanatory: 'Amant turc qui se perce le bras devant sa Maitresse pour preuve de son amour' ('Turkish lover who cuts his arm in front of his mistress to prove his love') and Ferriol goes into even greater detail in the text of his Receuil: 'Il y a des Turcs assez fous pour se déchirer les bras en présence de leurs maîtresses pour prouver leur passion; et ceux qui se les déchirent davantage passent pour les plus amoureux' (p. 16: 'There are some Turks who are mad enough to cut their arms in front of their mistresses to prove their passion; and those who cut themselves are further believed to be those who are the most in love'). The folly of such a proof of one's love combined with the exotic aspects provided by the Turk's costume, hairstyle and appearance, together with the veiled mistress behind bars, would have appealed greatly to Schulenburg. Once again, Guardi has adapted an upright motif and incorporated it into a horizontal design, adding not only colour and liveliness to the figures themselves but also introducing a characteristically Venetic landscape seen through an arch on the left.