John Young
English, 1755-1825
Mustapha Kahn, from Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey
INV-2136
John Young
English, 1755-18251815
Mustapha Kahn, from Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey
John Young English, 1755-1825 →mezzotintprint
Date
1815
Medium
Mezzotint, hand-colored with brush and watercolor, on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
37.5 × 25.3 cm (14 13/16 × 10 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Barbara Kipper
The fifteenth Ottoman sultan, Mustapha I, ruled briefly from 1617 to 1618 and from 1622 to 1623, without much national or international incident. Contemporary sources described him as mentally ill, “childish” or “unbalanced,” while others believed him to be a holy figure. Here John Young simplifies the original miniature portrait, which showed the sultan standing before a bookcase of some 200 volumes, by leaving him with a single book in his hand. Mustapha is the only member of the warrior-like clan to be shown in such a literary pose.
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