- 3195
Le Hay, - and Charles de Ferriol (1652-1718).
Description
- Recueil de cent estampes représentent differentes nations du Levant... [Part Two:] Explication des cent estampes... Avec de nouvelles estampes de ceremonies turques qui ont aussi leurs explications. Paris: Jacques Collombat, 1714-1715
Literature
Catalogue Note
first edition. a fine clean copy. The plates are based on paintings in the collection of the Marquis de Ferriol (1652-1722), French ambassador to the Porte. In 1707, Ferriol commissioned Jean Baptiste van Mour to paint one hundred pictures of different officials and races in their costumes: the chief eunuch; a Turkish man cutting himself to show his love for his mistress; a Jewish woman taking goods to Turkish harems; a Greek bride; Turkish women at leisure; Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Persians and Arabs. When the paintings were complete, Ferriol helped le Hay to publish the present prints of the pictures. Le Hay's work was an instant success and the plates quickly became the principal source of turqueries for artists and publishers throughout Europe. In recognition of van Mour's talents, he was granted the unique post of 'Peintre ordinaire du Roi en Levant' in 1725.
Van Mour's paintings (and the plates that derive from them) show Constantinople as a cosmopolitan place with Muslims and non-Muslims uniting in shared 'Ottoman' pleasures. Armenians, Franks, Greeks and Persians are shown drinking coffee, playing mankeh (a version of backgammon), or making music. (It is interesting to note that the role of Constantinople as a place of pleasure is so often indicated in the words it gave to the outside work: sofa, kiosk, coffee, kaftan, turban.)