Gerard Bouttats [1630-1668] - Kara Mustafa Pasha di Romania — Historia di Leopoldo Cesare (Gualdo Priorato) - 1670

This splendid original copper-engraved portrait constitutes the ceremonial historical depiction of Kara Mustafa Pasha (here registered with the antique Italian designation Cara Mustafa Pascia di Romania &.), renowned military leader and Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, included in the monumental biographical work Historia by Leopoldo Cesare, curated by the scholar Count Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato and published in Vienna in 1670. The precious copperplate, printed with extraordinary sharpness and attributed to the renowned hand of the Flemish master Gerard Bouttats (1630-1668), shows the dignitary half-length, set within a solemn and deep oval frame moulded in a fully Baroque style. The Ottoman commander, destined to lead the siege of Vienna in 1683, is depicted with a stern and proud gaze, enhanced by a thick white beard; on his head he wears an imposing and sumptuous turban with woven fabric plates, a typical attribute of his very high political rank in Constantinople. He wears a damask robe finely decorated with detailed geometric and vegetal arabesque motifs along the shoulders, topped by a heavy ceremonial cloak. The composition is characterized by a dense and masterful chiaroscuro hatching that gives the figure a deep sense of three-dimensionality, and at the top center bears the page or plate number 238, while the wide lower margin hosts the elegant identifying inscription in Roman caps.