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Bernardo Bellotto

The Generous Turk, Pantomime Ballet performed in Vienna at the Court Theater

Maker

Bernardo Bellotto (Italian, 1721-1780), printmaker

Title

The Generous Turk, Pantomime Ballet performed in Vienna at the Court Theater
Le Turc Généreux

Year

1759

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

etching

Supports

Dimensions

Plate: 46.5 x 62.1 cm (18 5/16 x 24 7/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

In Plate--inscribed in LC:Le turc Genereux./Ballet Pantomime executé à Vienne sur le Teatre prés de la Cour le 26. April, 1758./ Presenté à S. exc. Mons le Comté de Durazzo, Conseiller intime actuel d

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of G. Pierce Metcalf

Object Number

52.226

Type

Publications

Exhibition History

The Festive City
Dec 21, 2012 – Jul 14, 2013

Label copy

In 1741, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria commissioned an intimate new theater close to her Viennese palace. Here Bernardo Bellotto depicts a production on its stage and includes the composer, Joseph Starzer, seated at the harpsichord, and the director of the Imperial Theater, Count Giacomo Durazzo, standing in the box at right. On stage is the balletic production of The Generous Turk-the story of a Turk who released a prisoner to her lover-which was staged in honor of the

visit of the Turkish envoy to the Austrian court. Although it was a court theater, its productions were open to any paying person of any class, which encouraged the type of social mixing (and people watching) that we associate with festivals. Bellotto gives a sense for the social atmosphere by showing his spectators facing outward and conversing. Engaging in the spirit of theater and festival, he also plays provocatively with the layered worlds of fantasy and reality in the layered

perspectival scene.

Venetian Drawings and Prints of the 18th Century
Jan 12, 1967 – Feb 05, 1967

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Bernardo Bellotto (Italian, 1721-1780), printmaker
The Generous Turk, Pantomime Ballet performed in Vienna at the Court Theater; Le Turc Généreux, 1759
Etching on paper
Plate: 46.5 x 62.1 cm (18 5/16 x 24 7/16 inches)
Gift of G. Pierce Metcalf 52.226

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