THE PORTRAIT OF SIR ROBERT SHIRLEY, BRITISH TRAVELLER, ADVENTURER, AND REFORMER OF THE PERSIAN SAFAVID ARMY
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILE
Matthias Greuter (1564/66 - 1638) after Peter Oliver (1594 - 1648), Rome, Italy, circa 1609 or later

Engraving on paper, depicting a half-length portrait of Sir Robert Shirley (or Sherley) in 3/4 view, looking to the left, wearing Persian-style clothing including a large turban with a crucifix at the top, set in an oval frame with the inscription 'Robertus Sherley Anglus Comes Caesare Eques Aurat', lettered below in a rectangular cartouche 'Magni Sophi Persaru. Regis Legatus ad SSmu. D.N. / Paulu PP.V. Caeteros q Principes Christianos. Ingress. Ro- / mam solennipompa die 28. septemb. 1609. aetatis suae. 28.' signed with the engraver's acronym MG f. (painted by Matthias Greuter) and the licensing of sale 'Supm. lic. Si vendino alla Pace, cu. priuil. (Under license / on sale at the Piazza della Pace / with privilege), a description of the engraving written in pencil on the reverse, the page 14.2cm x 9.8cm, the mount 41.9cm x 30cm.

Provenance: Purchased from a German auction house in the 1990s.

Matthias Greuter was born in Strassburg and began his career as an engraver in 1586 producing small engravings in the German Little Masters tradition. Born into a protestant household, when Greuter converted to Catholicism, he moved to France, settling first in Lyon and later in Avignon. In 1603 however, he moved a third time and established a very successful workshop in Rome. An exceedingly accomplished engraver, Greuter's subjects included architecture, maps and globes, portraits, and highly detailed allegorical scenes. This portrait of Sir Robert Shirley ambassador to the Safavid king, Shah Abbas I, was taken from a miniature painted by Peter Oliver. Oliver, the son of Isaac Oliver, another renowned early 17th-century miniature painter, was the lead painter at the English court of King Charles I. He is most notable for his miniature-sized copies of paintings in the British Royal Collection and others, many of which were commissioned by the King himself.

The subject of this engraving, Sir Robert Shirley, is remembered as one of the key English figures in Safavid Iran. Together with his brother Anthony, Robert Shirley travelled to Persia in 1598 on a mission to train the Persian army according to the rules and customs of the English militia and introduce its soldiers to important innovations and reforms in terms of warfare, especially artillery. In his lifetime, Shirley travelled to Persia three times; he embraced the local traditions and was fond of the arts and fashion of Iran, as majestically rendered in his standing portrait painted by Sir Anthony Van Dyck in 1622, currently in the National Trust Collections (inv. no. NT 486169). A copy of an identical engraving to ours was presented at the exhibition held at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich in 2013, “The Fascination of Persia”, and published in the exhibition catalogue (Alex Langer ed., The Fascination of Persia, Zurich, 2013, fig. 35).