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. 13/6;
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, 28 August - 21 November 1993, no. 18.

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 III and a detail p. 278, fig. 3 (as The Sultan receiving a delegation of dignitaries);
Europa und der Orient 800-1900, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 1989, p. 831, cat. no. 13/6;
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. 75, reproduced p. 213, fig. 93;
A. Bettagno, in Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 28 August - 21 November 1993, pp. 64-5, cat. no. 18, reproduced in colour.

The subject of this painting had been misunderstood by both Morassi and Pedrocco (see Literature), who had failed to notice its relation to Van Mour's design, engraved by Jean-Baptiste Haussard (c.1670-1749) for Ferriol's Receuil (see Fig. 1). The scene, the only one of the series recording an historic episode, shows the Armenian priest Dergoumidas condemned to death by the Grand Vizier Alì Pascià for having converted to Catholicism; an episode which actually took place on 5 November 1707. It is a symbol of Turkish cruelty and would certainly have appealed as such to Schulenburg. Guardi has used the motif of the Grand Vizier pointing accusingly at the priest but has given the scene greater dramatic effect by separating the action across a horizontal composition, emphasising the theatricality of gestures with the sweeping curtains in the upper corners. The room is similar to many of the harems and interiors from the series: the patterened tiles are not dissimilar to those in The sultan's favourite in the harem (Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Madrid; reproduced in colour in Bettagno, see Literature, 1993, p. 35) or in Odaliscs playing musical instruments in the harem (Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf; reproduced in colour, op. cit., p. 47). The unusual feature of the baroque cornice running around the ceiling of the interior is particularly Venetian, rather than Turkish, in flavour and is clearly Guardi's own invention.