Ambassadors and Painters

Pera Museum is one of the best located art place in İstanbul .If you are into art where you can vision scenes of İstanbul and Daily Life in the Ottoman world between the 17th to the early 20th century you need to have a stop here.

New Exhibition :” Intersecting Worlds  Ambassadors and Painters”

Ambassadors portraits and art patronage of ambassadors from the 17th to the 19th century with works selected from Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Collection.The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Orientalist Painting Collection not only allows us to travel across the meandering paths of diplomatic history under the guidance of art, but it also introduces us to intriguing personalities.

 Ambassadors and painters continue to communicate with us through a silent yet equally rich and colorful language of expression, present their reports and letters, and share with us their respective periods, worldviews, travels and experiences, as well as the ceremonies they joined. Listening to their extraordinary tales, it is impossible not to be enraptured by the splendor and elegance of a lost age.

For Example the series of paintings depicting the audience ceremonies of European ambassadors hold a unique place among the works of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour of Valenciennes, who lived in İstanbul from 1699 until his death in 1737. Depicting, in squence, the audience ceremony of a Venetian balio at the Topkapı Palace, this particular series of four paintings is distinct from its counterparts and is of particular importance as it includes a painting that portrays the ambassadorial procession traversing the city, as well as two paintings that bear the signature of the artist. Dressed in clothes unique to Venetian balios, the ambassador in the paintings is presumably Francesco Gritti, who served in İstanbul between 1723 and 1726.

Don't miss this exhibition !