French School, 18th century, Circle of Jean-Baptiste Van MOU - Lot 49

Lot n° 49
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Estimation :
8000 - 10000 EUR
French School, 18th century, Circle of Jean-Baptiste Van MOU - Lot 49
French School, 18th century, Circle of Jean-Baptiste Van MOUR (Valenciennes 1671–1737 Constantinople) Armenian Wedding Procession in the Ottoman Empire Oil on canvas 71 x 110 cm Our painting is related to the one Jean-Baptiste Van Mour created around 1720, now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. SK-A-2001), from which it borrows some of the procession’s figures, depicted in the opposite direction. It constitutes a crucial ethnographic record of the dhimmi communities in the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Ahmed III (1703–1730). As the king’s court painter in Constantinople and a protégé of the Count de Ferriol, the French ambassador, Van Mour captures the wedding procession in the Pera district. His composition, structured along a horizontal, frieze-like line, meticulously details the ceremonial hierarchy: musicians and bearers of offerings lead the procession, followed by the bride, entirely concealed beneath the traditional red veil (al), flanked by her maids of honor and close relatives. The work’s significance lies in the documentary precision of the textiles—silk brocades, trimmings, and ceremonial headdresses—as well as in the meticulous depiction of Eastern Christian customs, embodying the conventions of early 18th-century documentary Orientalism.
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