View of Constantinople

The artwork

Left of centre, in the walled town in the foreground, stands a round tower with a conical roof and a crescent on top: the Galata Tower, built by the Genoese in 1348. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• Constantinople in 1739, with the Galata Tower and, across the water, domes and minarets, in black.
• Above a sofa or in a library, the skyline of the city becomes the horizon of the room.
• A gift for anyone who loves Istanbul, and for anyone from Genoa.

From 1267 Galata, on the shore of the Golden Horn facing the old city, was a Genoese colony, and its tower, called Christea Turris, the Tower of Christ, stood at the highest point of its walls. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453 it was lowered and became a prison: in the sixteenth century it held Christian prisoners of war who worked in the Kasımpaşa arsenal. By the eighteenth century, when this view was published, lookouts at the top watched for fires. And the story goes that in the seventeenth century Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi jumped from the top with wings and landed in Üsküdar, on the Asian shore: the tale was recorded by the traveller Evliya Çelebi.

Across the water, the old city lines up its domes and minarets; in front, three men in kaftans and turbans talk among themselves, and a camel driver holds his kneeling camel by the bridle. The view, titled “Constantinople”, belongs to the Profiles ou vues des principales villes de l'Europe, published in Amsterdam in 1739 by the bookseller Henri du Sauzet to complete his pocket atlas, the Atlas de poche. It is engraved on copper, in black, and the copy we reproduce is kept in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Its place is above a sofa or in a library: it is a gift for anyone who loves Istanbul, and for someone from Genoa it holds a piece of home. And on the left the Genoese tower, with its crescent, still stands guard.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass