Rehabilitating Reputation in Early Modern Venice: Pietro Zen as Repainter of History in Mamluk Damascus

Abstract

Until the sultanate’s fall from power in 1517, the Republic of Venice spent several lucrative centuries trading with the Mamluks of present-day Egypt and Syria. Even in their final years of partnership, Venice’s close contact with the Mamluks continued, as visually described in The Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors in Damascus (1511). In the composition, the anonymous Venetian painter depicts a diplomatic meeting of these two parties. This article proposes that the contested patron of the work, Pietro Zen, had a specific agenda in commissioning the painting. As the consul in the composition, Zen had the Reception created to erase his past errors as ambassador to Damascus. By repainting history, Zen hoped to restore his reputation as a skillful Venetian diplomat as well as render for posterity his family’s legacy of working in the Levant.