Portrait of a Bektashi Dervish from Bosnia
Watercolour
1856 (Painted)
1856 (Painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The dervishes of Bosnia (now part of Yugoslavia) were reputed to be particularly devoted followers of Haci Bektash as were many people in Turkey itself. They have no real equivalent in the West but they were contemptuous of Muslim or any other orthodoxy, they ate and drank in Ramazan, and were loosely described as free-thinkers. They appear to have considered that they had reached such a pitch of spiritual development that the constraints of harsh dogma no longer applied to them. Books of humorous stories, about Bektashis happily confounding the bigots, are still published in Turkey today. Naturally, the orthodox regarded them as drunken rogues and Preziosi perhaps reflects this opinion in his mischievous portrait of the old man.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Portrait of a Bektashi Dervish from Bosnia |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil and watercolour touched with white |
| Brief description | Portrait of a Bektashi Dervish from Bosnia, 1856. Aloysius Rosarius Amadeus Raymondus Andreas, known as Amadeo, 5th Count Preziosi |
| Physical description | Watercolour of an old man wearing a large turban and a fur-trimmed green robe |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Dervisce - Musulmano da Bosnia 1856
|
| Object history | This is one of a group of 31 portraits, acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1900. They were once assembled in an album, but whether by Preziosi himself, or a member of his family, or subsequently, is not known. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | The dervishes of Bosnia (now part of Yugoslavia) were reputed to be particularly devoted followers of Haci Bektash as were many people in Turkey itself. They have no real equivalent in the West but they were contemptuous of Muslim or any other orthodoxy, they ate and drank in Ramazan, and were loosely described as free-thinkers. They appear to have considered that they had reached such a pitch of spiritual development that the constraints of harsh dogma no longer applied to them. Books of humorous stories, about Bektashis happily confounding the bigots, are still published in Turkey today. Naturally, the orthodox regarded them as drunken rogues and Preziosi perhaps reflects this opinion in his mischievous portrait of the old man. |
| Bibliographic reference | Llewellyn, Briony and Newton, Charles. The People and Places of Constantinople : watercolours by Amadeo Count Preziosi 1816-1882. London, Victori & Albert Museum, 1985
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | D.46-1900 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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