In the wake of the previous post, Venice was –thanks to its productive trade– one of the powers of the Italian peninsula and the main trading port for the north of Europe commerce and, especially, for Byzantium commodities, whose centre was at Constantinople. How did it reflect into the history of art, generally speaking? Well, the consequences are not difficult to imagine as the intense commercial trades from Venice to the Asian ports, i.e., the comings and goings of merchants from the West and the East help to spread both Empire’s artistic tendencies. It was his role as a gateway for commerce that brought into the attention of the Italian artists new tendencies and styles no previously seen in Western Europe, and, vice versa, the Ottomans started to enjoy the great Italian artists, particularly in their role as portraitists.
Some of the lay confraternities (scuole) were in charge of providing commissions for the painters and artists of all crafts, in this way, its cohesive role between the Venetians and their trade was even stronger established and was another reason for its prosperity and wealth among the rest of the republics. The great interest in their minds of the powerful sultans was to be seen in the commissions they would ask Westerners to produce for the glory of the sultan. To cut a long story short, in this case I have chosen the portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent –one of Mehmet’s descendants– c.1530–40, oil on canvas, 99 × 85 cm, which is thought to be a composition from Titian’s workshop, now to be seen at the Gemäldgalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. His powerful and easily headgear is, without any doubt, what call the attention to the Westerners spectators of the time.
Jesús Lorenzo Vieites
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Italian Old Masters (Chiefly!) 