The meal offered to Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen, Jean Baptiste Vanmour, ca. 1727 - ca. 1730
Part of the ceremony was that Calkoen attended a meeting in the divan, the council chamber of the palace, after which the grand visor offered him and his entourage a meal. That meal Vanmour depicts here. Opposite the grand visor, on a low stool, Calkoen sits with two interpreters next to him. The sultan could listen in unnoticed behind the prison window; the window was therefore called 'the eye of the sultan'.
Discover more Old Masters in the following collections: