Asian art auction previews: Portrait of power
This late 16th or early 17th century portrait depicts the Hurrem Sultan Roxelana (1502-58), the legendary wife of the longest reigning Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (r.1520- 66). She became the most powerful and influential woman in Ottoman history.
Roxelana, who was traded as a slave by Crimean Tartars, had an unprecedented relationship with the…