Scene in the Garden of a Serraglio

Giovanni Antonio Guardi

Escena en el jardín de un serrallo

Guardi, Giovanni Antonio

Viena, 1699 - Venecia, 1760

Scene in the Garden of a Serraglio, c. 1743

© Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
Location: Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

Oil on canvas

46,5 x 64 cm

CTB.1956.2

Artwork history

  • Schulenburg Collection?

  • Knoedler Gallery, New York.

  • Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, 1956.

  • Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

1961

From Van Eyck to Tiepolo: An Exhibition of Pictures from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, London, The National Gallery, nº 57.

1965

Mostra dei Guardi, Venecia, Palazzo Grassi, nº 26.

1979 - 1981

Old Master Paintings from the Collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, Washington (DC), National Gallery of Art; Detroit (MI), The Detroit Institute of Arts; Minneapolis (MN), The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Cleveland (OH), The Cleveland Museum of Art; Los Angeles (CA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Denver (CO), Denver Art Museum; Fort Worth (TX), Kimbell Art Museum; Kansas City (MO), William Rockhill Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts; New York (NY), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, nº 11, pp. 97-99

1982

Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza: Maîtres Anciens, Paris, Petit Palais, nº 13.

1982 - 1983

L’Orient des Provençaux. Orient réel et mythique, Marseilles, Musée Borély, nº 222.

1983 - 1984

Selev’i iz sobranija barona Tjssen-Bornemjsa (zapalnoevpejskaja zivopis´XIV-XVII vv.), Moscow; Saint Petersburg; Kiev, nº 28.

1988

Shedevrui Zapadnoevropeiskoi Zhivopisi XVI-XVII vv. iz Sobraniya Thyssen-Shedevrui Zapadnoevropeiskoi Zhivopisi XVI-XVII vv. iz Sobraniya Thyssen-Bornemisza, Novosibirsk, Picture Gallery, nº 9.

1989

Europa un der Orient 1800-1900, Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, nº 13.

1993

Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, nº 5.

1994 - 1995

The Glory of Venice. Art in the Eighteenth Century, London, Royal Academy of Arts; Washington, National Gallery of Art; Venecia, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, nº 194, p. 435.

1996

De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, nº 9, p. 64.

1997

Capolavori dalla Collezione di Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza: 60º anniversario dell'apertura della Pinacotecca di Villa Favorita, Lugano, Villa Favorita, nº 13, p. 56.

1997 - 1998

El triunfo de Venus. La imagen de la mujer en la pintura veneciana del siglo XVIII, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, nº 50, pp. 190-191.

1999

Aspectos de la tradición paisajística en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Málaga, Salas de Exposiciones del Palacio Episcopal, nº 22, pp. 90-92.

2000

De Van Goyen a Constable. Aspectos da tradición do pintoresco na Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Corunna, Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña, nº 25, pp. 106-108.

2001

Landschaften von Brueghel bis Kandinsky. Die Ausstellung zu Ehren des Sammlers Hans Heinrich Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, nº 22, pp. 77-78.

2003

Fantasies de l’haren i noves Xahrazads, Barcelona, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, p. 66.

2024

Colonial Memory in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Cat. 50, p. 125.

  • -Heinemann, Rudolf J.: Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. Castagnola-Lugano, Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, 1958, nº 173a.

  • -Morassi, Antonio: ”I Guardi nei servigi del Feldmaresciallo von der Schulenburg’‘. In Emporium. 1960, parte II, p. 204.

  • -Watson, Francis J. B.: ”A Series of ‘Turqueries’ by Francesco Guardi’‘. In The Baltimore Museum News. 1960, pp. 6-8, 13.

  • -Ragghianti, Carlo L.: Antichi Disegni e Stampe dell’Accademia Carrara di Bergamo. Bergamo, 1963, nº 295, p. 35, illus. 121.

  • -Pignatti, Terisio: ”Nuovi Disegni di Figure dei Guardi’‘. In Critica d’Arte. 1964, nº 11, p. 76 ff, illus. p. 59.

  • -Pallucchini, Rodolfo: ”Note alla mostra dei Guardi’‘. In Arte Veneta. Venice, 1965, vol. 19, p. 223, fig. 281.

  • -Zampetti, Pietro: Mostra dei Guardi. Catalogo della mostra. Venice, Palazzo Grassi, 1965, p. 51, fig. 27 [Sheet by Zampetti].

  • -Cailleux, Jean: ”Les Guradi et Pietro Longhi’‘. In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del Convegno di Studi promosso dalla Mostra dei Guardi. Venice, September 13th-14th, 1965. Venice, 1967, pp. 53-54, fig. 78.

  • -Mahon, Denis: ”The Brothers at the Mostra dei Guardi: Some Impressions of a Neophyte’‘. In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del Convegno di Studi promosso dalla Mostra dei Guardi. Venice, September 13th-14th, 1965. Venice, 1967, p. 177, fig. 78.

  • -Pignatti, Terisio: Disegni dei Guardi. Florence, 1967, p. 8.

  • -Heinemann, Rudolf J. (ed.): The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Ebbinge-Wubben, Johann; Salm, Christian and Sterling, Charles. Lugano-Castagnola, Villa Favorita, 1969 [German edition 1971], vol. 1, nº 121, pp. 138-139; vol. 2, illus. 277.

  • -Morassi, Antonio: Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venice, Alfieri, 1973, vol. 1, pp. 61-62, 114, 120-122, illus. XXVII, p. 127, note 97, p. 327, nº 102; vol. 2, fig. 122.

  • -Morassi, Antonio: ”Four newly discovered Turkish scenes’‘. In Apollo, 1974, p. 274.

  • -Morassi, Antonio: Guardi. Tutti i Disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi. Venice, 1975.

  • -Rosenbaum, Allen: Old Master Paintings from the Collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Exhib. cat. Washington (DC), National Gallery of Art – New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979-1981]. Walker, John (intr.). Washington (DC), International Exhibitions Foundation, 1979, pp. 97-99 [ Sheet by Rosenbaum].

  • -Bazin, Germain: ”À propos de la Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza: L’Art du XVIIe siècle européen’‘. In L’Oeil. 1982, vol. 320, p. 29.

  • -Borghero, Gertrude: Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, catalogue raisonné of the exhibited works of art. Lugano, The Collection – Milan, Electa International, 1986, nº 121, pp. 135-136, illus.

  • -Watteville, Caroline de: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Guide to the Exhibited Works. Lugano – Milan, Electa, 1989, pp. 140, 141, illus.

  • -Binion, Alice: La galleria scomparsa del maresciallo von der Schulenburg: un mecenate nella Venezia del Settecento. Milan, Electa, 1990. Collana di studi (Ateneo veneto; 4), p. 107.

  • -Re, M. da: ”Guardi, Gianantonio’‘. In La Pittura in Italia. Il Settecento. Milan, 1990, p. 747.

  • -Pedrocco, Filippo and Montecuccoli degli Erri, F.: Anonio Guardi. Milan, 1992, pp. 39, 97, illus. XV, p. 130, nº 61, p. 203, fig. 79.

  • -Guardi. Quadri turcheschi. [Exhib. cat. Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini]. Bettagno, A. (ed.). Milano, Electa, 1993. Cataloghi di mostre; vol. 52, p. 38, illus. [ Sheet by Bettagno].

  • -Merling, M.: ”The Brothers Guardi’‘. In The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. Martineau, J. and Robison, A. (eds.). [Exhib. cat. London, The Royal Academy of Art – Washington (DC), National Gallery of Art, 1994-1995]. New Haven (CT) – London, Yale University Press, 1994, p. 297, 453, illus. 194.

  • -De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Exhib. cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza]. Llorens Serra, Tomàs (ed.). Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1996, nº 9, p. 64. [Sheet by Roberto Contini].

  • -Capolavori dalla Collezione di Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza: 60º anniversario dell’apertura della Pinacotecca di Villa Favorita, Lugano, Villa Favorita,  [Exhib. Cat.], 1997, n. 13, p. 56.

  • -El triunfo de Venus. La imagen de la mujer en la pintura veneciana del siglo XVIII, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza [Exhib. Cat.], 1997, n. 50, pp. 190-191.

  • -Aspectos de la tradición paisajística en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Málaga, Salas de Exposiciones del Palacio Episcopal [Exhib. Cat.], 1999, n. 22, pp. 90-92.

  • –De Van Goyen a Constable. Aspectos da tradición do pintoresco na Colección Carmen Thyssen- Bornemisza, La Coruña, Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña [Exhib. Cat.], 2000, n. 25, pp. 106-108

  • -Landschaften von Brueghel bis Kandinsky. Die Ausstellung zu Ehren des Sammlers Hans Heinrich Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Exhib. Cat.], 2001, n. 22, pp. 77-78.

  • -Contini, Roberto: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Painting. London, 2002, nº 34, pp. 166-171, illus.

  • -Fantasies de l´haren i noves Xahrazads, Barcelona, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona [Exhib. Cat.], 2003, p. 66.

  • -Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arnaldo, Javier (ed.). 2 vols. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, vol. 1, p. 142, illus. p. 143 [ Sheet by Roberto Contini].

  • -Borobia, Mar and Alarcó, Paloma (eds.): Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Obras escogidas. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2011, p. 138, illus. p. 139.

  • – Colonial Memory in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid [Exhib. Cat.], Ed. Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2024. Cat.  50, p. 125.

  • -Colección Carmen Thyssen. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Ed. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2024. P. 26-27   [Sheet by Roberto Contini]

Expert report

Inside a garden bordered by light, fanciful, decorative architecture with large Baroque volutes and a bizarre fountain adorned with spurting bronze putti at its centre, the sultan sits on a large pillow. He is dressed in yellow and red and is smoking a long pipe. In front of him stands his favourite of the harem, dressed in blue. A high-ranking Turk is seated on the right, while other servants people the scene.

This unusual painting (with its companion piece, The Favourite of the Harem, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano) is also of notable historical significance, since it was part of a series of forty-three “Quadri Turchi”, or scenes of court life in Constantinople, painted by Antonio Guardi for Marshal Johannes Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747) between 1741 and 1743. They were brought to Germany after the death of their patron in 1747. Antonio Guardi entered the service of the marshal between 1729 and 1730, after an initial period spent with Count Giovannelli. Schulenburg does not appear to have been especially competent in artistic matters, nor was he prompt in his payments; records show what a lowly social status the artist had; his wages were less than that of a cook or even a manservant, since he was really only paid as a copyist. Schulenburg’s “Turkish passion” had its roots in his experience as commander of the troops of the Serenissima fighting the Turkish invasion and in his victories over the enemy years before (he even commissioned portraits of his adversaries in the battles of Venice and Corfu-Ali Bassa and Janum Chogia).

Comprehensive documentation (cash books, reports, inventories, estimates, lists of shipments, etc.) on Schulenburg as a collector and a patron of Antonio Guardi were tracked down by Morassi (1960) in the family archive of a descendant, Count Johann Heinrich von der Schulenburg, in Hehlen. Art historians have made much of the fact that the patron of the episodes of Turkish life must have been familiar (perhaps because he owned them) with the prints derived from the paintings of the Flemish painter Jean Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737), who worked in Constantinople from 1699 and became “peintre ordinaire du Roi du Levant” in 1725. Van Mour (or Vanmour) also published engravings of Turkish customs and Turkish harem life, and it should be remembered that in 1712 Le Hay in Paris published a collection of engravings by Mehlinck based on van Mour (Recueil de cent estampes représentant differentes nations du Levant).

With regard to Guardi: payments (two and a half zecchini each) recorded in the cash book-for eleven paintings in 1742 and for another twenty-four in 1743 -account for thirty-five of the forty-three paintings. The remaining eight could have been painted in 1741, the only year for which the account records are missing.

The Thyssen canvas, along with its companion piece, was first published by Heinemann in 1958, and ascribed to Antonio’s younger brother Francesco. This attribution was upheld by Watson (1960) and Ragghianti (1963), until Pignatti (1964) corrected it and attributed them to Antonio. Pignatti had noticed that on the back of the preparatory drawing for the companion piece, The Favourite of the Harem, there is a sketch of the figure of the Archangel Raphael for the organ parapet in the church of the same name in Venice, which is definitely by the older Guardi. Since that discovery there has been no doubt that these two works should be given to Giovanni Antonio, although it seems likely that Francesco collaborated on the seventeen Turkish scenes which have come to light so far. Morassi himself (1973) only attributes to Antonio the two Thyssen paintings, the two in the Cini Collection in Venice, and two others in private collections in Bergamo (The Swing, Odalisque, and Soldiers in the Woods), and is of the opinion that the rest were by his brother Francesco. Although the discontinuity of styles is undeniable, it should not be forgotten that Schulenburg demanded rapid execution (eight Turkish paintings were paid for at the same time on 10 May 1743) and that the only name in the documents is Antonio Guardi (either Antonio, “Pittor Guardi”, or Guardi).

Roberto Contini

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