FAUSTO ZONARO - ON THE BOSPHORUS

The first of six children of the bricklayer Maurizio Zonaro and Elisabetta Bertoncin, he showed good drawing skills from an early age and was therefore sent by his parents to study at the Technical Institute of the city of Lendinara and then in Verona , at the Cignaroli Academy directed by Napoleone Nani . He then opened a small painting school in Venice , but his work often took him to Naples as well. Among the most important works of this period, a cycle of around thirty pastels with views of Naples and its surroundings, created for the villa of Duke Paolo Camerini , now Villa Simes-Contarini , in Piazzola sul Brenta , is particularly noteworthy. The turning point in Fausto Zonaro's career, however, came in 1891 when, together with Elisabetta Pante, his former student in Venice who had now become his partner, he decided to venture to the East, to the then Constantinople . Here, he gradually managed to make himself known in aristocratic circles, obtaining increasingly important commissions until, in 1896 , he was appointed "court painter" thanks to the good offices of the Russian ambassador, for whom he had created some paintings and who presented the work The Imperial Regiment of Ertugrul on the Galata Bridge to Sultan Abdul-Hamid II , who immediately purchased it. The sultan commissioned Zonaro a series of other works, in particular a series of paintings on the epic of Mehmet II . Fausto Zonaro, the last painter of the imperial court of Constantinople, remained in the Golden City until 1909 , the year he returned to Italy following the coup d'état that deposed Sultan Abdul-Hamid. He then settled in Sanremo and continued to paint small views of theLigurian Riviera and the nearby French Riviera . In Sanremo, Zonaro was welcomed with great enthusiasm. A clientele, including those from the East, continued to commission him portraits and oriental subjects, drawing from the countless drawings he brought home. He continued to paint until his death in 1929. He is buried in the Foce cemetery in Sanremo. Many of Fausto Zonaro's works are still preserved in the most important museums of Istanbul , including the Topkapi , the Imperial Palace of Dolmabahçe and the Military Museum.

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