MONTANI, P
The present album of the Gennadius Library is comprised of plates by painter P. Montani. The plates show characteristic human types of the Ottoman Empire and their costumes. They were lithographed by engraver E. Olivier and published in colour by the latter's publishing house at Pera, Istanbul around 1855.
Costumes, itinerant traders, Ottoman officials, members of religious and ethnic minorities, and women remained favourite subjects of both painters and the European reading public, from the 16th to the end of the 19th century. It is obvious that several albums of the genre copy earlier editions with few if any alterations or additions.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
