Italian School 18th Century

Sold in modern wooden painted frame. Strips of paper pasted to surface, in left and right margins (incorporating part of side framing lines). One or two minor stains and holes in margins. A few light spots in sky, otherwise very good and fresh.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The exotic yet highly sophisticated and civilised world of the Ottoman Empire was irresistibly attractive to 18^th-century European travellers and adventurers.  Visits to Constantinople were documented by a variety of authors, and also by several artists, who made drawings and watercolours, often intended to be used as the basis for book illustrations, depicting the costumes, customs and scenery of the Bosphorus.

Yet despite the quantity of such travel documentation that has survived from the 18^th Century, these two vast, panoramic views of Constantinople are previously unrecorded, and exceptionally rare.  Both bear inscriptions in Italian that indicate that the scenes depicted were drawn in 1750 and 1755.  Although it is possible that the panoramas themselves were executed slightly later, on the basis of less elaborate drawings made on the spot, their style suggests that they cannot date from very much later than the 1750s.  Panoramic views do exist from the end of the 18^th Century and the early 19^th Century, notably those of Antoine-Ignace Melling, which were used as the basis for large lithographed plates, but from the mid-18^th Century hardly anything comparable is known.

One significant exception is, however, a panoramic drawing, in a private collection, which shows almost the same view as in the present lot (the viewpoint is in fractionally further to the right), but without the element of the dramatic fire.  It is also captioned in Italian, and although the handwriting is not the same as here, the style of the drawing seems close enough to suggest that both panoramas may be by the same hand.  Significantly, though, the caption on the private collection drawing reads: Costantinopoli vista da Pera, e presa sul sito nell'anno 1750.  It therefore seems very possible that that drawing and the following lot were both made during a 1750 visit to Constantinople (or were based on sketches made during such a visit), and that the present drawing is a subsequent variant of one of the 1750 drawings, made to incorporate the dramatic 1755 fire.

The identity of the artist responsible for the drawings cannot at this time be established with any certainty, but an important clue is provided by the extraordinary manuscript log-book of an expedition made by Captain John Acton in 1750-51, which contains a fascinating series of topographical drawings.  Though English by birth, Acton was the son of Sir John Francis Edward Acton (1736-1811), who was Prime Minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV.  John Acton was a colourful character, who had occupied himself as a privateer in the Indies, before entering the service of the Tuscan navy.  The expedition that he led to the Levant was intended to train the Italian crewmen and officers in British naval practice.  The manuscript, formerly in the Blackmer Collection,¹ contained 22 topographical drawings, smaller and less elaborate than these panoramas, but not dissimilar in style, and captioned with Italian inscriptions in a hand very close to that seen here.  It has been suggested that the drawings were made by Acton himself, and also that he took with him an unidentified Italian artist to record the expedition.  It cannot, of course, be established for certain that the present panoramas and the third similar work relate to Acton's journey of 1750-51, but the date inscribed on two of the large drawings, and the general stylistic links with those in the Acton manuscript, suggest that a connection is very possible.

The devastating fire that swept through Constantinople in May 1755, depicted in the present drawing, must have been a resonant event, and one can easily imagine that the owner of the 1750 panorama might have commissioned an "updated" version, showing the inferno.  With its labyrinthine streets of densely packed wooden houses – many of which, as in Tudor London, had projecting upper storeys that almost touched the neighbouring buildings – Constantinople often fell prey to catastrophic fires.  Indeed, whole divisions of high-ranking guards were trained in the rapid and systematic destruction of rows of houses, to create fire-breaks and prevent the further spread of such fires.  All the same, as the inscription here indicates, the damage was often enormous: this fire destroyed no fewer than 18,000 houses.

We are extremely grateful to Christine Thompson for her kind help with the cataloguing of this lot.

1.  Sold, London, Sotheby's, 13 May 2004, lot 229