PORTRAIT OF A MAN WEARING A GREEN TURBAN, PROBABLY A SKETCH FOR A WALL PAINTING, TURKEY, OR POSSIBLY PERSIA OR CENTRAL ASIA, LATE 15TH CENTURY

Ink and opaque watercolour on paper, later inscription at left "mawlana najm(?) al-din 113(?)", mounted on stout paper

F.R. Martin (1868-1933), Europe, early 20th century
(F. R. Martin was an influential and pioneering scholar-collector of the late 19th and early 20th century. Swedish by birth, he was the author of The Miniature Painters of Persia, India and Turkey, published in London in 1912).

Islamic Art from the Collection of the Fogg Museum, The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1974
Sacred Symbols of Islam, Harvard Art Museums, 1981
Linear Graces, Harvard Art Museums, 1994

Atil 1973, fig.26, pl.11

In fair overall condition, losses to the lower and upper left hand corners, some waterstaining and rubbed areas throughout, detail generally good, minor area of repainting to the left side of the figure's lips, as viewed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This is a unique, highly important and enigmatic portrait. Esin Atil described it as "exceptionally powerful and individualized" in an article published in Ars Orientalis in 1973 (vol.IX, pp.117-118), where she associated it with a group of works executed in Istanbul in the second half of the 15th century influenced by European artists such as Gentile Bellini. She suggested that the portrait is of a specific personage rather than a type, and noted that the strong linear quality in the rendition of the features, the awkward positioning of the neck and the handling of the turban point to an oriental hand. She went on to suggest that this work is a version by a Turkish artist of a work by a European artist, or is painted over a sketch by a European artist. Cary Welch went further by suggesting it might be the work of Bellini himself working in a Turkish idiom (handwritten note on the backboard of the frame).

There are several obvious aspects of this portrait that point to an association with a late 15th century Turkish/Istanbul origin of the type suggested by Atil and Welch. The physiognomy is very close to the beak-nosed facial characteristics of Sultan Mehmed the Conquerer himself (d.1481), as depicted in various contemporary portraits such as the famous Bellini work in the National Gallery, London (see Carboni 2007, p.101), a profile portrait attributed to Constanza da Ferrara (Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul, H.2153, f.145b, see Atil 1973, fig.9) and Turkish versions of the same period, such as one showing the sultan holding a rose (Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul, H.2153, fol.10r, Atil 1973, fig. 24; Carboni 2007, p.157). Even the three-quarter profile of the present study can be visually linked to the Bellini portrait and the picture of the Sultan holding a rose. The style of the turban of the present study is also extremely close to those worn by Sultan Mehmed in the three portraits mentioned above and others of the same period such as Portrait of a Turkish Scribe in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Musuem, Boston. Furthermore, it was rumoured that Bellini may have painted murals in palaces in Istanbul, including the Topkapi, and Atil speculated that the present work may have been a cartoon for just such a fresco. Certainly the scale of the present portrait means that it cannot have been intended for an illustrated manuscript, and even in an album setting it would have been disproportionately large, and so an association with wall-painting is highly likely.

However, as Atil admits in her article, there is no prototype for the present work and its association with this milieu is slightly problematic. While a Turkish origin remains the most likely, it is worth noting the striking similarity to a Persian portrait of a bearded man, which Melikian-Chirvani associates with the Herati master Behzad (Melikian-Chirvani 2007, p.58-59, fig.7, and footnote 33; in the same discussion Melikian suggests that the Freer Gallery Portrait of a Turkish Painter is Persian, of Herati or Tabrizi origin around 1520, rather than a Turkish work of the late 15th century as Atil had suggested). The physiognomy and turban are remarkably similar– the staring, almond eyes, the curving sweep of the eyebrows, the curved wrinkles above the eyebrows,  the angular nose with a distinctive flared nostril, the rather protruding ears, and the wrapped cloth turban with a fluttering end-piece and a central domed cap – are all strikingly close. Even the manner in which the head sits directly on the shoulders, with a hunched and shortened neck, is similar. However, the present work has a distinctly more linear quality to the execution and an almost caricatural sharpness, which the Persian portrait of the bearded man lacks.

If one stands back and lets one's gaze range further east, one can note certain similarities in the essential painterly style of the present work to some Central Asian and Chinese drawings and paintings of the 13th and 14th centuries, including wall-paintings and scrolls, and Tibetan paintings of the 14th and 15th centuries. They share a sharply defined linear quality (even in the fully coloured works) and an accentuated graphic precision. The Buddhist faces are, on the whole, wider and flatter than the present face, which is aquiline and rather gaunt, and while it is not suggested that a specific link exists to Chinese or Tibetan painting, perhaps the artist who painted the present work had been exposed to a Central Asian tradition or was of Central Asian origin. The Silk Route provided a rich and diverse melting-pot of styles and artistic influences, especially in the late 13th to 15th centuries, and one can perhaps imagine the present portrait adorning a wall in a palace in Transoxiana as well as one in Istanbul, and indeed this aspect may simply reflect a natural flow of artistc influences from the east to west in the late medieval period.

The inscription on the left edge of the present work is later, but identifies the figure as "Mawlana Najm(?) al-Din 113(?)". The presence here of the name Najm al-Din is interesting, since it may refer to the Sufi Sheikh of the same name who founded the Kubrawi order, which was one of the most important Sufi orders during the Mongol period in Central Asia. Of Khwarazmi origin, Najm al-Din travelled extensively, studying in Egypt and Persia (Tabriz) before returning to Central Asia to establish his own following. He died at the hands of the invading Mongols in in 617/1220 and was buried near Khwarazm. Although the Kubrawis mostly dissipated and amalgamated with other orders by the 16th  century, pockets of followers remained near Bukhara and, interestingly, in Turkey. A Kubrawi sheikh was recorded as having fought in the Ottoman army that conquered Constantinople under Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, the same Sultan who invited the European artists to his court, as discussed above. Thus the later identification of the subject of the portrait as a Central Asian Sufi sheikh who left a community of followers near Bukhara and in Turkey in the second half of the 15th century links serendipitously with the enigmatic origins of the painting itself.