This atmospheric view of Constantinople (Italian School, c1600) comes up for sale in London tomorrow evening, part of Christie's Old Masters evening sale (Lot 26, est £100,000–150,000). An inscription on the reverse, now obscured by the relining of the canvas, reveals that it was painted for 'Pietro Dal Verme'. The Dal Vermes were a powerful family from Verona in the Renaissance, with close Venetian ties. This monumental painting may have been commissioned to commemorate a celebrated ancestor, the condotierre Luchino Dal Verme, who had been enobled for crushing a revolt in Crete and died in the Byzantine capital in 1389. Probably painted in the late 16th or 17th century, it measures a monumental 180.9 x 279.4cm (71 ¼ x 110 in). The artist had clearly never seen a minaret in his life, let alone the Bosphorus, but he would have found ample inspiration in popular engravings of the time.
Which makes it no less evocative. All the familiar landmarks are there, scattered across the peninsula, mingled with fortified towers plucked from the hills of Tuscany. On the far left are the gardens of Topkapı Palace (above), with the domes no doubt of Ayasofya above them. The Leander Tower stands on its islet in the Bosphorus, and the somewhat sparsely inhabited walled quarter of Pera in the foreground overlooks the entrance to the Golden Horn. On the far right we can glimpse the Byzantine Aqueduct of Valens (below).
Courtesy of Christie's King Street
Special thanks to Brendan Lynch for drawing this painting to our attention.