TWELVE EUROPEAN ENGRAVINGS WITH THE PORTRAITS OF OTTOMAN AND TATAR GENERALS AND DIPLOMATS
Mostly Vienna and Bohemia, Habsburg Austrian Empire, mid to late 17th century

Comprising a group of twelve copperplate engravings on lined paper, each individually framed, depicting various Ottoman and Tatar high-ranking military and diplomatic figures, primarily from the 17th century, most portraits published in Historia di Leopoldo Cesare, a richly illustrated three-volume chronicle compiled by Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato and printed in Vienna between 1670 and 1674 by Johann Baptist Hacque, featuring engravings by Cornelis Meyssens, a renowned 17th-century Flemish engraver and printmaker in Vienna, the publication aiming to document the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640 - 1705), including the Austro-Ottoman conflicts and major figures of the Ottoman Empire, most engravings with their original plate numbers, painter and engraver captions, and occasionally date.

Each 33.3cm x 21cm including the frame

These plates were engraved after drawings by Abraham Bloemaert, Frans van den Steen, and others, and reflect the Habsburg perspective on Ottoman military elites. The sitters are often depicted in stylised attires, with exaggerated turbans or tall kalpaks, within oval portrait frames, accompanied by descriptive Italian and Latin captions.

The subjects include:

1. Sultan Galga Generale de Tartari, Fratello del Gran Cam – Possibly referring to a Crimean Tatar military leader and brother of the Khan.
2. Sedey Achmet Pascia Generale de Turchi – Likely Sedik Ahmed Pasha, an Ottoman general.
3. Achmet Chiray General de Tartari, Figlio del Gran Cham – Possibly Ahmed Giray, a Crimean prince and commander.
4. Kutschivt Mehemet Pascia di Varadino – Refers to an Ottoman Pasha of Oradea (Varadino).
5. Küprülü Mehmed Pascia Gran Vizir dell’Impero Ottomanno, Anno 1660 – Famous Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (1656–1661).
6. Portrait of the son of a Pasha captured in 1683, with German caption – A rare Austrian anti-Ottoman propaganda print from the siege of Vienna.
7. Scia Tra Patra Pascia di Leuens – Possibly a distorted name of a regional Ottoman official.
8. Vssain Pascia di Temizvar – Hussain Pasha of Timisoara (Temesvár), an Ottoman commander.
9. Alessio Covanski Generale de Moscoviti – Likely a Russian general, symbolically grouped with Ottoman-related prints.
10. Ismael Pascia Secondo Commandante all’esercito Ottomanno, Anno 1664 – Ottoman commander during the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664).
11. Haly Agha General de Giannizzari – Commander of the Janissaries.
12. Seterkazii Aga Gran Visir de Tartari – A Grand Vizier of the Crimean Tatars.

These prints served as both documentation and political commentary in the 17th-century European imagination of the Ottoman East. They are valuable not only as visual records but also for their role in shaping the Habsburg public’s perception of its enemies and diplomatic counterparts. Examples of these portraits are held in the Albertina collection (Vienna), the British Museum, and various European print cabinets. For an earlier, 16th-century example of Viennese engraving with Suleyman the Magnificent, please see Sotheby's London, 24 April 2012, lot 100.