AEGIDIUS SADELER (1568-1629)

MECHTI KULI BEG, AMBASSADOR OF SHAH 'ABBAS I OF PERSIA TO THE COURT OF RUDOLF II OF PRAGUE
After Esayele Gillon (fl. 1604-5)Engraving on laid paper, trimmed to margins
Plate: 26 x 18.8 cm | Sheet: 28.6 x 19.9 cm
 
LITERATURE:
Hollstein XXI.56.275 i/iii (first state before the addition of the publisher's address);
W. Deluga, 'The Oriental Portraits of Aegidius Sadeler', in Print Quarterly, vol. xxv, 2008, pp. 424-426
 
 
 
 
 
In late 1603, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II requested support from the Persian Shah Abbas I of the Safavid Empire in his war against the Ottomans in Hungary. In response, the Shah launched an attack against the Eastern borders of the Ottoman Empire to divert their attention from their Western campaign. In order to maintain the diplomatic relationship which he had fostered with his European counterpart, the Shah sent an ambassador to Rudolf's court, and it was during this visit that the Ambassador sat for a portrait by his court engraver, Sadeler. 
 
A drawing in bodycolour on vellum closely related to this print, made by the mysterious Esaye le Gillon, was sold at Christie's, London, 5 October 2010, lot 250. The sheet is inscribed: 'Esay le Gillon Pittore in Corte Cesarea, mi fece in Praga L'anno della nostra Saluta 1605 Li 2 di Luglio'. A pendant of a second Persian ambassador (Sinal Khan Shamlu), who accompanied Mechti Beg on this mission, drawn by the same artist (and also engraved by Sadeler, Hollstein 281) was sold at the same sale, lot 249. The two drawings by Gillon are now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.
 
 
Sadeler evidently took considerable interest in the Persian script, which features in several further of his engravings of Persian sitters (dating from 1601-5). The calligraphic cluster at the left, representing the ambassador's name, could have been copied from his signet ring.
 
 
 
Further impressions of this sheet include two examples in the British Museum, London, inv. no. 1868,0808.2488 and 1871,0812.4208; one in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, inv. no. E.5423-1919; another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv.no.49.95.2202; and one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. M26883.