Artwork
An Ambassador's Audience with Sultan Ahmed III (Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen)
An Ambassador's Audience with Sultan Ahmed III (Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen) is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Unknown. It dates from 1740 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. This oil painting depicts a formal audience between a dignitary and a ruler in an opulent setting.
About this work
Overview
This oil painting depicts a formal audience between a dignitary and a ruler in an opulent setting.
Subject & Meaning
The scene shows a seated figure, likely Sultan Ahmed III, receiving visitors, possibly including Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen, in a richly decorated room. The standing figures, holding hats, appear to be officials or dignitaries awaiting their turn to be received.
Technique & Style
The artist employed chiaroscuro, using strong contrasts of light and shadow to create a sense of depth and to render the textures of the figures' robes.
Context
The painting's setting, with its patterned tiles, arched windows, and red walls, suggests a palace or throne room, likely in the Ottoman Empire.
Artist & collection
Domestic Scene
Giacomo and Cardinal Marco, investing Andrea, Abbot of San Zeno, with his Benefice
The Nymph of Fontainebleau
Portrait of a Woman
Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden
Venus and Minerva
Family Group of Four on Sofa
Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen at his Audience with Sultan Ahmed III
An Ambassador's Audience with the Grand Vizier in his Yali on the Bosporus (Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen, 12 August 1727)
The Meal in Honour of Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen
Scene with the Sultan
Cornelis Calkoen on his Way to his Audience with Sultan Ahmed III
Reception of a Venetian Delegation in Damascus in 1511