Gift by Shah Abbas The Great to the Serenissima

Taking a cue from the big painting of Carlo and Gabriele Caliari, depicting Doge Marino Grimani receiving the Persian Ambassadors (1603), exhibited in the Sala delle Quattro Porte, we want to illustrate the excellent diplomatic relations that occurred in modern times between Venice and Safavid Persia at the time of Shah Abbas I the Great (1587-1629), united by a common desire to counteract the threatening Ottoman expansion.
Is presented here in the original documents of the seventeenth century, testifying to the exchange of letters concerning the renewed promise of collaboration, as well as the sending of goods expressly requested by both parties. Particularly interesting are the papers relating to the lists of gifts that the two states exchanged during diplomatic meetings, of which traces still remain in the collections of several institutions including the Venetian Civic Museums Foundation. An important example is depicted with precious velvet Safavid The Virgin and Child, offered by Shah Abbas I the Great at the Doge Marino Grimani, on the occasion of his official visit of the delegation Persian in Venice in 1603, now in the Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo .

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