Venetian School, Procession of the Bailo in Constantinople

Winding along a bay is a long procession. A large group of men and a handful of women  accompany several elegantly dressed men on horses. Behind them, across the river, we see a large city. The man ahorse in the centre of the painting, with the golden cape and hat, is the Bailo of Constantinople. Along with his entourage (the men in wigs and triangular hats behind him), this Venetian dignitary—essentially the ambassador of Venice to Constantinople—is on his way to present his letters of credence to the Ottoman Sultan. Riding in front of him to escort the procession is the Sultan’s most senior assistant, the Chiaus, recognisable by his tall hat, while marching at the parade’s head are the Janissaries, mercenaries in the army of the Sultan.

The Venetian Bailo could present his credentials to the Ottoman Sultan only on a handful of days each year. The Sultan had decreed that he would only receive the Bailo and accept his letters of credence on the day the Janissaries received their salary, so that the payment of these soldiers became part of the same procession and ceremony. The Janissaries were also honoured with a meal in Topkapi Palace on this day. One ambassador’s travel journal describes how several thousand Janissaries descended upon the platters of pilaf, causing a deafening din as they feasted. This was a deliberate choice on the Sultan’s part: the mercenary troops rebelled frequently, but they would never do so on the day they received their salary. Instead, their presence would intimidate the new ambassador. As the print above shows, the procession was organised according to strict protocol, and the order of the figures in the painting matches that of the print. The caption beneath the print outlines the various roles of the people portrayed. 

To get an idea of where the painter was located, we must zoom in on a map of Istanbul. Back when the city was known as Constantinople, it was located on the European side of the Bosporus strait, on a peninsula surrounded by water. Today it is the historic city centre of Istanbul, bordered to the south by the Sea of Marmara, to the east by the Bosporus Strait, and to the north by the river known as the Golden Horn. Looking past the Bailo’s parade in the painting, we see the Golden Horn and, behind it, Constantinople. The Aqueduct of Valens and the Hagia Sophia are clearly visible. This means that the painter chose a vantage point in the district of either Pera or Galata from which to portray the procession. This makes sense: all Western dignitaries, consuls and ambassadors lived in these quarters, so it was from here that the procession to the Sultan set off. 
Ambassadors entrusted the painting of this procession and the subsequent audience with the Sultan to a painter among their retinue, a tradition that truly flourished when Jean Baptiste Vanmour arrived in Constantinople. This artist went on to produce numerous depictions of audiences with the Sultan; a nearly complete series chronicling the reception of the Dutch Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen is preserved in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.

Vanmour also produced a similar painting in 1725, showing the arrival of Bailo Francesco Gritti. Vanmour was born in northern France in 1671, specifically in Valenciennes, and left for Paris to train as a painter at a young age. There, it is believed he made the acquaintance of the Marquis de Ferriol, who was appointed ambassador to Constantinople in 1699. Vanmour travelled with him as part of his retinue, and—at the Marquis’ request—produced a hundred or so studies of the costumes, customs and habits of the Ottoman people during the first few years of his stay in the city. Upon his return to France, Ferriol had these studies published in print under the title Recueil de cent estampes représentant differentes nations du Levant (approximately: Collection of One Hundred Engravings Representing the Various Nations of the Levant). This collection played a major role in shaping the eighteenth-century European fascination with Turkish fashion, the so-called Turquerie. With multiple reprints and translations, it brought Vanmour great renown—and many commissions. His atelier in Istanbul employed numerous assistants, mostly Greek and Armenian painters, to satisfy the large demand for painted copies based on his prints. Working in his style, generally based on the prints of the Receuil, remained a successful business for artists until the late eighteenth century. 

Another painting portraying the same event, produced in 1731 by Pietro Longhi, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London under lot number 76 on 30 March 2022.

Bailo Francesco Gritti
Francesco Gritti served as Bailo from 1723 to 1727. He was also the subject of another painting by Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, which depicts his audience with Sultan Ahmed III in 1725. This painting is currently housed in the Pera Museum in Istanbul (inv. no. AK7229514). Vanmour was a popular artist who worked in Constantinople, producing paintings of the audiences with the Sultan of various ambassadors, including the Dutchman Cornelis Calkoen and the Austrian Count Damian Hugo von Virmont. In the present painting, Gritti is depicted sitting on a white horse, wearing a magnificent golden cape and hat, his gaze turned towards the viewer. He is part of a long procession on its way to Topkapi Palace, where Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703-1730) awaits. In the background, we see the outlines of Constantinople, with the rounded domes of mosques and their tall minarets jutting above the horizon, and ships lying at anchor in the middle distance. When he returned to Venice after his tenure as Bailo, Gritti wrote a detailed report for the Serenissima, describing the Sultan, his court and the political currents around them. His report was completed on 5 July 1727 and was preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia (edited by M.P. Pedani, pp. 885-948), offering fascinating insights into the internal politics of the Ottoman court and the duties of the Bailo. 

The Bailo was the official representative of the Republic of Venice at the Ottoman court. As such, it was his responsibility to maintain good relations with the Sultan and his court, and to protect the political and economic interests of Venice. Gritti’s report paints an unvarnished picture of Ahmed III, describing him as a learned man and a skilled administrator, but also as cruel and avaricious. Gritti recorded every detail of his private life, and included fulsome descriptions of his favourite courtesan, his vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, and other members of the court, along with their respective virtues and vices. The report also discusses the Ottoman Empire’s military and trade relations with other countries, was well as the state of its foreign affairs with regard to Russia, England and the Netherlands. Francesco Gritti relinquished his post to Zuanne Delfino in 1727, and subsequently returned to Venice.

The present procession of the Venetian Bailo was painted in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. This shows not only that European/Turkish relations have existed for centuries, but also that ambassadors and the tradition of their reception have a long history as well. The painting also presents a splendid view of Istanbul by the bay of the Golden Horn as it looked in the early eighteenth century.

Literature:
D. Bull e.a., De ambassadeur, de sultan en de kunstenaar op audientie in Istanbul, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 2003.
R. van Luttervelt, De “Turkse”schilderijen van J.B. Vanmour en zijn school, Istanbul 1958.
O. Nefedova, A Journey into the world of the Ottomans The art of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour (1671-1737), Milaan 2010.
H. Theunissen, Topkapi & Turkomanie Turks-Nederlandse ontmoetingen sinds 1600, Amsterdam 1989.