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Competing Ventures, Contested Envoys: Orientalist Portraits That Are Not.

Persian Representation in Portraiture in Early Modern Period in Europe.

Portraits of the first Persian Ambassadors to the Court of St James’s in the 1620s are some of the earliest representations of Persians in European portraiture in the Early Modern period. “Representation” becomes a charged word in the context of Saidian Orientalism.[1] Particularly since one of the Ambassadors, Robert Sherley (c1581-1628), was not Persian, but an Englishman and the son of Sir Thomas Sherley, a Member of Parliament for Sussex and, later, Stayning. Robert Sherley dressed like a Persian and was married to a Circassian woman. Today, he would be labelled an “Orientalist” in the older sense: a student of, and an enthusiast for, Asian or “eastern” culture. The other Ambassador, Naqd Ali Beg (?-1627), arrived in London after Sherley, with the support and backing of the East India Company. Naqd Ali Beg disputed Sherley’s Ambassadorial claim, accusing him of being an imposter.

In this essay, three paintings will be reviewed. The portraits of Robert Sherley (Figure 1) and his wife Teresa (Figure 2), painted by Anthony van Dyck in 1622 and now at Petworth House in West Sussex. And the portrait of Naqd Ali Beg (Figure 3), painted by Richard Greenbury in 1626 and now at the British Library. Through the story of these paintings, we see how competing ventures in the seventeenth century came into conflict with each other and how in an increasingly connected world, new alliances are formed at a pace set by distance and speed of travel. This review also highlights the beginnings of cultural cross-dressing in orientalist portraits.

Robert Sherley and his brothers, Thomas and Anthony, were English adventurers seeking their fortune in foreign lands. The story of their adventures was popularised back in London in pamphlets and became a stage play in 1607 entitled “The Travailes of the Three English Brothers” with the title:

“Sir Thomas Sherley his travels, with his three yeares imprisonment in Turkie, his Inlargement by his Maiesties Letters to the great Turke; and lastly, his safe return into England this present year; Sir Anthony Sherley his Embassage to the Christian Princes. Master Robert Sherley his wars against the Turkes, with his marriage to the Emperor of Persia his Neece.”[2]

After Thomas Sherley curtailed his adventures and returned to England, Anthony and Robert travelled to Persia to negotiate a trade concession with Shah Abbas I. At the end of the 16th century, the English trade with Persia was either done through the agency of the Levant Company, with its principal sphere of activity in the Ottoman territory, or the agency of the Muscovy Company, active in Russia. The Spanish and Portuguese traders had begun to make inroads into Persia, using the southern ports in the Straits of Hormuz.[3]  The East India Company and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were not yet formed at that time.[4]

Anthony and Robert Sherely met with Shah Abbas during 1598-99.[5] One of the key issues of concern for the Shah was the threat to his kingdom by the Ottoman Turks. Anthony initiated his trading enterprise from Persia with a consignment of goods but in addition was also appointed by the Shah as his Ambassador. Armed with the credentials from the Shah and gifts for the “Christian Princes of Europe”, he was dispatched to seek an alliance against the Ottoman Turks. Meanwhile, Robert decided to stay in Persia and make himself useful at the Court.

Anthony did not return to England, nor did he return to Persia. He fell out with his Persian retinue en route after they accused him of selling the Shah’s gifts intended for the Christian Princes, and his companions returned to Persia to tell the Shah of the failed mission.[6] In 1608 Robert married the daughter of a Circassian Chieftain, who was brought up by her aunt at the court of Shah Abbas. She was named Sampsonia, but was baptised and christened Teresa after both she and Robert became converts into the Catholic Church by the Carmelite missionaries in Esfahan.[7]

Soon after their marriage, Robert and Teresa began their journey to England with Robert now appointed as the “Ambassador to all Christian Princes”. Whilst in Prague, Robert was knighted by the Emperor Rudolf II as a Count Palatine of the Holy Roman Empire and thereafter he styled himself as Sir Robert Sherley.[8] In Rome, Pope Paul V created Robert “a Count of the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran, Knight of the ‘Aurata Milizia’ and Chamberlain of Honour”.[9] They arrived in England in 1611 with Teresa now pregnant. She gave birth to their son three months later and they christened him Henry, after the Prince of Wales. The social standing of the Sherleys was such that the Prince of Wales and his mother, Queen Anne, became the child’s god-parents.[10] Despite this, King James I was in no hurry to grant an audience to Robert Sherley, who for many, was a suspicious character. Firstly, he had converted to Catholicism, which may have created a prejudice against him in the largely protestant society in London. Secondly, he dressed in flamboyant full Persian garb and this exotic appearance drew suspicion.

The manner and appearance of the Robert and Teresa Sherley can be seen from their van Dyck portraits. In Robert’s portrait (Figure 1), he stands in front of a lavish red curtain that flows behind him on the floor. Dressed in an opulent silk Persian attire, his dress is a three-quarter length tunic in light golden silk with intricate needlework in flower motifs. It is fastened in the middle with a column of red ribbons tied in double bows. A darker golden silk cape of the same length is casually draped over one side of his shoulder and across the blue collar of his tunic. The cape also has an elaborate needlework scene in the style of a Persian miniature painting with congenial maidens serving wine, interwoven with large elaborate flower motifs. The blue fastening ribbons of the cape dangle freely over his right hand, which is clutching a sash tightly tied round his waist to form a cummerbund. Robert’s sword is worn to his left and he is holding a Persian bow with his left hand to his side. The quiver with its arrows rest next on his left. The most striking feature of his attire is an enormous turban he wears on his head. Made of fine silk and tied in the Safavid style, the turban has a bejewelled pin with a pomegranate motif, topped with small feathers. Sir Robert’s gaze is directed straight at the beholder, but the expression on his face is somewhat melancholic.

Robert’s dress, although made with typical material of the Safavid dress for the Shah Abbas period, seems to have custom modifications; the red ribbons in the centre of his tunic are atypical of the Persian dress. It seems this accessory was specified by Sherley, accentuating his eccentric character. In the van Dyke picture, the pin in his turban has a pomegranate motif, while in Iran, Sherley wore his turban with a pin in the shape of a cross.[11] It seems Sherley wanted to emphasise his “otherness” through his appearance in every situation, wearing a cross at the court of Shah Abbas, having ribbons on his tunic, and dressing as a Persian in London.

Teresa’s portrait (Figure 2) shows her seated three-quarters left in Persian style on a divan of cushions. The divan is over a red carpet with folds showing its fine weave. She is wearing a long golden silk dress with intricate needlework that falls in shimmering folds to her feet. A tiara with a feather tuft at the back holds a full-length veil of the same colour as the dress. The veil wraps round her shoulders and falls to her sides. Her hands on her lap are adorned with rings and bracelets and she is holding a white handkerchief in her right hand. She is wearing a long golden chain over her dress. A pearl earring is visible in her left ear and there is a pearl neckless round her exposed neckline. Her gaze is directed at the beholder and she has a stern and confident expression on her face. Behind her to the right, there is a view of a landscape with clouds and a stone building with a tall tower, and to the left, there is a red curtain.

Teresa’s dress is a quintessential European dress according to the cut, but made from Persian fabric. It is a hybrid garment and quite different from anything a woman in Shah Abbas’s harem would have worn. Her outfit is less Persian that Robert’s. By marrying Robert, Teresa has become a European and is portrayed as such. Even the landscape behind her is European.

When van Dyck painted Robert and Teresa Sherley in Rome in 1622, they were on their way back to England following a long and protracted trip to Persia to report back to the Shah about the lack of progress in their mission to build an alliance with European nations against the Ottoman Turks. Robert and Teresa had left England in 1613 and after a stay at Surat in India, they reached Esfahan by the overland route in 1615. The Shah’s disappointment at the failure of the mission was no obstacle to Sherley’s ability to leave Persia once again after four months in Esfahan. Their return to England was by way of Goa, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, where their portraits were painted by van Dyck, finally reaching England in 1624. While in Spain, Sherley discussed the possibility of the concession for the monopoly of Persian silk trade with the king of Spain. In Rome, he discussed the possibility of an alliance with Persia against the Turks with the Pope.

Robert Sherley continued with his mission as the roaming Persian Ambassador but his efforts in pursuit of a trade deal in England after he arrived there in 1624 were continuously and meticulously being undermined by the East India Company.[12] In 1626, Naqd Ali Beg arrived on a boat from the East India Company. Competition for trade with Persia was increasing and the East India Company was feeling left out. In 1623, the Dutch East Indian Company had been recognised by the Shah of Persia. Feeling the threat from a potential monopoly concession for the export of Persian silk to Spain or to the Netherlands, the East India Company promoted Naqd Ali Beg as the Persian Ambassador to the newly enthroned King Charles I at the Court of St James’s. The Company also commissioned Richard Greenbury to paint a full-length portrait of Naqd Ali Beg (Figure 3). Greenbury was the same artist who was commissioned by the East India Company one year earlier to paint a large picture detailing the massacre of the English at the hand of the Dutch at Amboyna.[13] Both the Amboyna Massacre painting and the portrait of Naqd Ali Beg had a propagandist purpose; serving the interests of the East India Company.

Greenbury’s portrait of Naqd Ali Beg also had a political message, leaving no illusion as to the importance of silk from Persia. Standing full length three-quarters left, he is shown in a dark room with no furnishings other than a delicate silk carpet with ridges of folds showing its fine weave. He is wearing a full-length shimmering silver silk tunic with fine needlework and a three-quarter length cape over his shoulders in a darker golden colour. The needlework on the cape has scenes from a Persian miniature painting depicting figures in a garden. His sash, in a darker colour, is bound round his waist in a cummerbund which he grips with both hands. His turban is tightly wound with decorative tufts on both sides. His moustache is impressively full and wing-like, but his gaze is distracted in front of him and pensive. In European portraiture of the period, this type of gaze is often used to suggest interiority and thus intelligence. The East India Company commissioned two copies of the painting, one of which was kept at the East India House and is now part of the collection of the British Library. The other copy, now lost, was given to Naqd Ali Beg to take to Persia.[14]

Both the Greenbury portrait of Naqd Ali Beg and the van Dyck portrait of Robert Sherely are similar; they depict two envoys from Persia, similarly dressed. However, because Robert Sherley is dressed as a Persian, does it carry the weight of the postcolonial notion of Orientalist, as defined by Edward Said, and if so, what about the portrait of Teresa Sherley? Teresa who is Circassian, is Catholic and fair skinned, but at the time, Circassia was part of the Persian Empire and Teresa would have been considered a Persian subject. She also happened to live at the Court of Shah Abbas in Esfahan before her marriage. We have already established in the painting she is dressed in a European cut dress and the landscape behind her is also European. Is her portrait still Orientalist? Mayer suggests, the cross-cultural dressing is not a simple case of orientalism because there are nuances associated with this type of performance.[15] The European cross-cultural dresser is staging a public performance “to engage with and gain power over [the] domestic European imaginary”.[16] Robert Sherley’s Persian style extending to his every-day activities is more than posing for a portrait in Persian clothing. Therefore, his portrait should not be considered Orientalist either.

The composition of both Naqd Ali Beg and Robert Sherley’s portraits conveys the same message about the importance of silk from Persia; they show it as a luxurious material worth possessing, marking the importance of the wearer.[17] However, the Greenbury portrait was purposefully commissioned to serve the interests of the East India Company, whereas the van Dyck portrait pairs were probably commissioned by the Sherley family for their private collection, although this too had a limited public function, in the sense of being displayed to visitors to the family home. The van Dyck portraits entered the collection of Petworth House sometime between 1672 and 1763.[18] It is reasonable to suggest they came from the nearby Wiston House, the house of the Sherley family, 15 miles away.[19]

Finally, when Naqd Ali Beg met with Robert Sherley in person, a fracas occurred; he tore Sherley’s letter of credentials, claiming it to be a forgery and struck Sherley in the face.[20] Not impressed, King Charles I dismissed both and ordered them to return to the Shah to resolve their differences. Since the East India Company’s annual fleet had already sailed, they had to wait for a year before the next passage to India in 1627.[21] Naqd Ali Beg’s return journey was filled with anxiety at his failure to accomplish his mission for the Shah. He died at sea before reaching India after a session of heavy indulgence with opium.[22]  Robert Sherley died in Persia before reaching the Shah and was buried there. Teresa, who was with him at the time, settled in Rome and later had the remains of Robert brought back and interred in the church of Santa Maria della Scala, where she was later buried herself.[23] Neither the Spanish, nor the East India Company gained a monopoly in the trade of Persian silk. The next Persian Ambassador to the Court of St James’s arrived in 1809.[24]