![]() ![]() I don’t know who took the photo above, but you can see she was a strikingly beautiful woman. Her proper, Turkish name is Hatice Hayriye Ayşe Dürrüşehvar Sultan, as she is the daughter of Abdülmecid II, the last heir to the Ottoman throne, and the last caliph. ![]() We are now in the princely Indian state of Hyderabad, where Azam Jar, heir to the Nizam’s throne, is married to Princess Durru Shehvar (b. ![]() I used to wonder if an over-eager restorer had perhaps given it a slight tweak.įast forward five centuries, to the 1930s. His invitation to stay was the result of a peace treaty between the Venetians and the Ottomans. ![]() The painting itself was done by Gentile Bellini when he spent two years in Constantinople in the late 1480s, as a guest of this Renaissance prince and sultan. The whole mad, scarcely credible story of this picture – its loss and rediscovery, and the curious route it took to London – can be found in Yashim Number 3, The Bellini Card, which it of course inspired. It belongs to the National Gallery in London, where it can be seen on, I think, alternate Wednesdays in the basement store. It’s a portrait I love, with its rich internal frame, and the sparkling rug draped over the sill. ![]()
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