The ‘Portrait of Count de Bonneval' by Violante Siries and the turqueries of the Sansedoni family

The membership of Orazio Sansedoni and his nephew Francesco in the Order of the Knights of Malta prompted these Sienese noblemen to commission from the Florentine painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, in 1750, the portraits of two Turkish governors, the Count de Bonneval and Mustafa Pasha, painted then copied by Francesco Gambacciani. The discovery in a private collection of a 'Portrait of Count de Bonneval', signed by the Florentine female artist Violante Siries Cerroti and executed in the same span of months in which the above-mentioned canvases were completed, must be attributed to the same patrons. The present article documents this painter's ongoing connection with the Sansedoni family and demonstrates the importance of a work that has remarkable similarities with the portraits of Bonneval executed by Liotard, seeking to shed light on the genre of the 'turqueries' that celebrated the West's deep fascination with the Orient and with those exponents of the Ottoman empire who took part in major historical events.

Index

Francesco Aceto Church area and altarpieces by "primitives" in San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples: from the "Saint Louis" by Simone Martini to the "Saint Jerome" by Colantonio. II
read abstract » pp. 2-61
Gianluca Amato The wooden 'Crucifixes' of Giuliano, Antonio and Francesco da Sangallo
read abstract » pp. 62-123
Fernando Gilotta A new krater by the Fould Painter
read abstract » pp. 124-125
Jacometto Veneziano and the humanists. A proposal for the 'Portrait of Luca Pacioli and Guidubaldo da Montefeltro' of the Museo di Capodimonte
read abstract » pp. 126-149
'Portraits' for Jacometto Veneziano, Marco Basaiti and Andrea Previtali
read abstract » pp. 150-158
Leonardo da Vinci in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan: a citation from Luca Pacioli for the “Sala delle Asse”, or “room of the mulberry trees”
read abstract » pp. 159-166
Alessandra Pattanaro A 'Male Portrait' by Girolamo da Carpi from Palazzo Spreti in Ravenna
read abstract » pp. 167-172
Stefano L'Occaso Lattanzio Gambara at Maguzzano
read abstract » pp. 173-177
Elena Rame A drawing by Lattanzio Gambara for the 'Martyrdom of Saint Stephen' at Vimercate
read abstract » pp. 178-179
Gennaro De Luca A new interpretation of the “gentil huomo famoso pittore” Giovanni Maria Morandi
read abstract » pp. 180-191
Fabio Sottili The 'Portrait of Count de Bonneval' by Violante Siries and the turqueries of the Sansedoni family
read abstract » 192-197