The 17th-century couple who straddled the east and west - and today's British Museum exhibitions
A daring 17th-century couple have the distinction of starring in two exhibitions about to open in London. As you enter the magnificent survey of the world of Shah Abbas and early modern Iran in the great domed setting of the British Museum's Reading Room, among the first things you encounter are paired portraits of Robert and Teresia Sherley. He was one of two British brothers who travelled in 1598 to the Persian court and became ambassadors from Shah Abbas to the west, she the daughter of a Christian Circassian noble family. The portraits were done in England while Robert Sherley was on a diplomatic mission from Shah Abbas. As befits an ambassador from Isfahan he wears Persian court robes, while Teresia Sherley is dressed in western style but with Safavid Persian patterns on her silk dress. Most strikingly, she has a gun in her hand - and knew how to use it: she twice saved her husband's life in sticky situations.
It's a tantalising story of travel, adventure and cultural encounters. A letter displayed near his portrait reveals Sherley's loyalty to Shah Abbas. He had stayed in Iran while his brother Anthony was sent back to Europe as an ambassador; Anthony failed to achieve anything and eventually Robert too was sent to represent Persia to Europe. In the letter, he criticises his brother for betraying the Shah. His portrait suggests that while he travels in Europe his heart is in Isfahan.
The only shame is that beside the delicate masterpieces of Iranian art (not to mention a huge array of Chinese porcelain presented to the Ardabil shrine by Shah Abbas), the anonymous English portraits of the Sherleys look quite lumpen. But this is not the case when you meet the same couple again in Van Dyck and Britain, about to open at Tate Britain.
Here they are, portrayed in 1622 in Rome by Anthony van Dyck - and these two paintings glow with the spontaneity and life of this great master of the portrait. Robert Sherley's face is soft and careworn as well as keen-eyed beneath his headress of silver, red and gold; his robe, bedecked with flowers and pastoral figures, glints in a richly nuanced flicker of light. Teresia Sherley has a stark reality in Van Dyck's painting, her pale skin and black hair giving human tenderness to her display of gold-threaded garments.
Van Dyck's paintings are a true aesthetic meeting of east and west. He responds excitingly to the challenge of Islamic design. He captures the glamour and mystique of the Sherleys's eastern clothes and furnishings (Teresia Sherley sits on cushions in an opulent tent-like setting with a palm tree behind her). At the same time his attention to their individual faces and personalities is quintessentially European - it exemplifies the rise of western individualism.
This could not be a bigger contrast with the British Museum exhibition where - apart from the Sherleys - individuals are almost invisible. As the British Museum's director Neil MacGregor points out in the catalogue, "Shah Abbas, as a Muslim ruler, left no public paintings or sculptures of his likeness, not even on his coins. So in this exhibition, apart from a few small, private portraits, we have to assess him on his achievements ..." By contrast, one of the essays in the Van Dyck exhibition catalogue is entitled Fashioning the Modern Self...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
It's a tantalising story of travel, adventure and cultural encounters. A letter displayed near his portrait reveals Sherley's loyalty to Shah Abbas. He had stayed in Iran while his brother Anthony was sent back to Europe as an ambassador; Anthony failed to achieve anything and eventually Robert too was sent to represent Persia to Europe. In the letter, he criticises his brother for betraying the Shah. His portrait suggests that while he travels in Europe his heart is in Isfahan.
The only shame is that beside the delicate masterpieces of Iranian art (not to mention a huge array of Chinese porcelain presented to the Ardabil shrine by Shah Abbas), the anonymous English portraits of the Sherleys look quite lumpen. But this is not the case when you meet the same couple again in Van Dyck and Britain, about to open at Tate Britain.
Here they are, portrayed in 1622 in Rome by Anthony van Dyck - and these two paintings glow with the spontaneity and life of this great master of the portrait. Robert Sherley's face is soft and careworn as well as keen-eyed beneath his headress of silver, red and gold; his robe, bedecked with flowers and pastoral figures, glints in a richly nuanced flicker of light. Teresia Sherley has a stark reality in Van Dyck's painting, her pale skin and black hair giving human tenderness to her display of gold-threaded garments.
Van Dyck's paintings are a true aesthetic meeting of east and west. He responds excitingly to the challenge of Islamic design. He captures the glamour and mystique of the Sherleys's eastern clothes and furnishings (Teresia Sherley sits on cushions in an opulent tent-like setting with a palm tree behind her). At the same time his attention to their individual faces and personalities is quintessentially European - it exemplifies the rise of western individualism.
This could not be a bigger contrast with the British Museum exhibition where - apart from the Sherleys - individuals are almost invisible. As the British Museum's director Neil MacGregor points out in the catalogue, "Shah Abbas, as a Muslim ruler, left no public paintings or sculptures of his likeness, not even on his coins. So in this exhibition, apart from a few small, private portraits, we have to assess him on his achievements ..." By contrast, one of the essays in the Van Dyck exhibition catalogue is entitled Fashioning the Modern Self...