‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’ – A Lifesize Patinated-Bronze Bust Of A Warrior

Description

Émile-Coriolan-Hippolyte Guillemin (French, 1841-1907)
A Lifesize Patinated-Bronze Bust Of A Warrior, Entitled ‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’ (‘Guardsman to Sultan Mahmud II’).

Wearing a Turban Helmet with chainmail above a jacket cast in relief to resemble richly embroidered silk. A dagger with scabbard and Ottoman flintlock pistol tucked into his robes and held by a belt.

Gilt, Silvered and Patinated Bronze. On a green marble socle.
Signed ‘Ele Guillemin’ underneath the left shoulder.

France, Circa 1880.

The janissaries were an elite military corps equipped to protect the Ottoman sultan and his household. The janissaries were kapıkulları, meaning “door servants” and most were non-Muslims. Conscripted and converted to Islam, they were drawn from across the extensive Ottoman empire. Here, the janissary is of Sub-Saharan lineage, and in the tilt of the head and fixed gaze, Guillemin captures his authority and nobility.

Portrait of Sultan Mahmud II ordering the slaughter the Janissaries (Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul).

The janissaries were subjected to strict discipline but paid salaries and pensions. They became a distinct social class, their proximity to the sultan and power at court afforded them considerable status and control over the military power of the Ottoman empire.  They became so powerful that they were instrumental in installing Mahmud II (1785 – 1839) as sultan, who in a twist of fate moved to curtail their power by establishing a more modern military trained along European lines. In response, the janissaries mutinied and advanced on the sultan’s palace. In the ensuing fight the janissaries’ barracks were set aflame by artillery fire, resulting in 4,000 fatalities, known as the Auspicious Incident. The survivors were either exiled or executed, and their possessions were confiscated by the Sultan. The fall of the janissaries weakened the military position of the Ottoman Empire and led to the Russo-Turkish War of 1828.

The janissaries’ legendary status made them a poignant subject which appealed to Orientalist artists. Guillemin was one of the most prolific and successful French Orientalist sculptors. He exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, where from 1877 he submitted works on exclusively Orientalist themes. ‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’, bust in bronze, was shown at the 1880 Salon (no. 6395). Another example, paired with the female bust of ‘Femme Kabyle d’Algerie’ (1884) sold from the Property of Estate of Rochelle Sepenuk, Sotheby’s New York, 21 October 2008, lot 92, which sold for $1,202,500.

‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’ and ‘Femme Kabyle d’Algerie’ sold from The Estate of Rochelle Sepenuk, Sotheby’s, New York, 21 October 2008, lot 92 ($1,202,500).

In some sale records, the title ‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’ is given to mistakenly describe ‘Zeibeck, soldat irrégulier turc des environs de Smyrne (type de l’Asie Mineure)’, a bust in bronze shown by Guillemin at the Salon of 1879 (no. 5082). The Zeybek wears a distinctive reddish helmet called a “Kabalak’’ and should not be confused with a janissary.

Guillemin’s bust of ‘Zeibeck, soldat irrégulier turc’ was first shown at the 1879 Paris Salon and is sometimes confused with ‘Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II’.

Guillemin was inspired by the Middle and Far East and focussed on the ethnographic accuracy of the costumes and physiognomies of his busts. He was responding to Romantic portrayals of African countries in contemporary art and literature, as manifest in the exoticism of the operas L’Africaine and Aïda. The rich and colourful Orientalist themes allowed Guillemin to experiment with polychrome sculpture, specifically the use of gilt and silvered bronze highlights.

Regarding Guillemin’s use of polychromy, a journalist writing in 1881 recorded:

“The polychrome sculptures of M. Emile Guillemin are on exhibition in Paris. Guillemin is doing much to overcome the instinctive repugnance of people to colored sculpture. We know that the Greeks painted their marbles, but we content ourselves with wondering at it, and are inclined to think that at any rate the art is a lost one, and that we cannot imitate them. M. Guillemin has, however, devoted many years of travel and study to the subject. He has gone to the Orient for his types, for there he finds the richest and most picturesque variety of faces and costumes. The coloring of the Paris sculptures is said to be very brilliant—gold gleaming with its incorruptible splendor, silver with its subdued pale tints, and copper with fine delicate grain—all blended in such a way as to produce ensembles of sustained harmony.” (The American, 22 January 1881, p. 237).