Venetian School, c. 1620 Ottoman Honey Merchant Oil on unlin...

Hammer

£28,000

Venetian School, c. 1620
Ottoman Honey Merchant
Oil on unlined canvas

Dimensions: 
77 (H) x 103 cm. (L)  (30 3/8 x 40 ½ inches)


This incredibly rare early depiction of an Eastern Mediterranean or North African honey merchant is thought have been painted circa 1620. It predates the Flemish-French painter Jean Baptiste Vanmour (1671-1737) by around 100 years. Vanmour has been considered, until the emergence of this painting, to be the earliest and most refined recorder of Ottoman secular life.

In the present painting, the honey merchant sits in his carpeted tent in obvious control of the trade around him. His accountant sits in deference whilst the apiarists and their workers present their straw skeps, or hives. This fascinating scene of everyday life in the Ottoman world, an Empire which included the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, illustrates much more than at first glance. Such an early depiction executed in oil on canvas is exceptional. Aside from the two iconic painters Gentile Bellini (active about 1460; died 1507), with his portrait of the Sultan Mehmet II of 1480 in the National Gallery, London and the aforementioned Van Mour, there are scarce western depictions of Ottoman or North African existence.

 

The artist of Ottoman Honey Merchant was probably Venetian both on stylistic and cultural grounds. The artist seems to be aware of the Bassano family of artists, reflecting their same blocky figures. The book-keeper turned away from the viewer is also familiar stylistically tothe Bassano dynasty. Certainly the strong and particular narrative content suggests therecording of a first-hand experience, although the potential name of this itinerant artist is not currently known.

 

Venetians were still the largest foreign community in Istanbul during the sixteenth century and remained the Ottomans’ most important international trading partners well into the seventeenth century. This mutually beneficial relationship provided each partner with access to key ports and valuable goods. Though territorial wars intermittently interrupted their relationship, both empires relied on trade for their economic well-being. As a Venetian ambassador expressed, ‘being merchants, we cannot live without them.’  The Ottomans sold wheat, spices, raw silk, cotton and ash (for glass making) to the Venetians, while Venice provided the Ottomans with finished goods such as soap, paper and textiles. The same ships that transported these everyday goods and raw materials also carried luxury objects such as carpets, inlaid metalwork, illustrated manuscripts and glass. 

 

Honey was a highly significant commodity in Ottoman Empire during the period 1200 to 1700.  It was produced in huge quantities in almost every non-arid coastal region, from the Black Sea all the way to modern day Morocco, although it was most abundantly harvested in Attica and Turkey. The honey was used as a sweetener but also as a preservative for fruitsand fresh produce like meat, the wax from the bees was a pleasant-smelling core source of lighting and the honey could also be used medicinally as a natural antiseptic. Unsurprisingly, the Ottoman rulers had their own tax code for honey, with the duty collected being one akcËeor two akcËes from each beehive, depending on the locality and custom.

The painting is redolent with period detail:  the merchant sits on a flat weave rug; in front of him is a painted tray (possibly either metal or papier maché) with a brass coffee pot and a white, glazed cup and saucer.  He wears prayer beads on his wrist.  The blue and white tent has been erected close to a town gateway which can bee seen beyond.  The book-keeper wears what appears to be a black burnous with a white hood;  this garment derives from the Berber Nomadic tribes and therefore strongly suggests that the scene could be identified as being North African.  To the right are three black men, almost certainly enslaved (the middle of the three being heavily disguised in a dark hood).  There was an ancient slave trade across the Sahara to the Mediterranean coast and also up the East coast of Africa and the Red Sea As there were restrictions on the enslavement of Muslims, “pagan” areas further to the South became an important source of enslaved people.   Ottoman areas of Anatolia and Attica tended to enslave Christians from the Black Sea and the Balkans, often prisoners of war.  Therefore the existence of the three figures to the right emphasises the likely location of this picture as being North Africa.  

A secular painting of such antiquity of any trade is profoundly rare.  But the fact that the trade illustrated is the buying and selling of honey and beeswax is even more enthralling, it being one of the most universal and ancient of foods, sources of light and medicine.  There is evidence of human harvesting of honey from over 8,000 years ago.  And the honeybee itself has become a symbol of the natural health of the planet: bees are vital for the preservation of ecological balance and biodiversity in nature. They provide one of the most recognisable ecosystem services, that being pollination, which makes production of food possible. By doing so, bees protect and maintain ecosystems as well as animal and plant species, and contribute to genetic and biotic diversity.  Bees also act as indicators of the state of the environment. Their presence, absence or quantity tells us when something is happening with the environment and when appropriate action is needed.

Therefore, this painting is a uniquely complex and layered object, addressing the history of art, trade, culture, race, dress, custom, food and natural sciences.