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Tuesday 2 December 2008

And Another Thing

Eye-stopping glimpses of an exotic and forbidden world

The most fascinating pair of pictures in the Tate show were painted early in the 17th century by an unknown artist. They show Sir Robert Shirley (1581–1628) and his Circassian wife Teresia, who died in 1668. He held the extraordinary post of the Shah of Persia’s envoy to all the European courts, which he spent his life visiting. The Pope, Paul V, gave him the rare and valuable privilege of the right to legitimise bastards, important in the inheritance of disputed estates. Of course the Pope’s writ did not apply in Protestant Europe, but it was absolute in Latin Christianity, and Shirley must have had a way with him to get the grant. His life was crowded with adventures, and would we had his autobiography. He dressed as a Persian nobleman with a huge turban, and the elaborate embroidery on his silk coat and cloak is rendered with astounding fidelity and skill in the portrait. It is a wonderful piece of work and vaut le voyage.

His wife’s portrait is, in one respect, even more remarkable, since it is the first to show a lady holding a pistol. It is true she also holds a watch, and it may be that these objects were put in to illustrate Western technology. But the lady looks as if she was quite capable of shooting, and given the various attempts to poison or assassinate her husband, maybe she needed to be. She survived him by 40 years, living in Rome and becoming a papal groupie, like so many women to this day.

The star of the show is undoubtedly John Frederick Lewis (1805–76), who came from a family of painters, studied under Bonington and Wilkie, and became perhaps the most accomplished of all craftsmen in the mixture of watercolour and gouache he preferred. Like many others, he penetrated the East via Moorish Spain and Morocco, and spent long periods living in Muslim countries. What attracted him and his patrons was the contrast between intense heat outside and cool interiors, whether of bazaars or houses. He specialised in tent and harem scenes, though the beautiful women he portrayed were probably Jewesses, Maronites or Copts rather than Muslims. His rendering of light filtering through slatted blinds and illuminating faces and interiors has never been surpassed, and is a miracle of skill and industry. The show includes his masterpiece ‘The Carpet Seller’, which may be a self-portrait of him in Egyptian rig and is now in the Blackburn Art Gallery. What a wealth of knowledge a serious art student could acquire by careful study of this work!

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