Portrait of a woman, possibly Haseki Hürrem Sultan, called Roxelana (1506-1558), bust-length, in Ottoman costume, with a jewelled headdress

Roxelana, the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1494-1566), is as much a figure of legend as she is of history. A European woman captured in her childhood and presented to Suleyman as a slave concubine, she eventually won the complete devotion of the Sultan, who first freed her and then married her as his Empress, in an astonishing break with tradition. Traditionally believed to have been of Russian (Ruthenian) origins, Roxelana may have been called Ruslana in her native tongue, although other traditions hold that her name was Anastasia or Alexandra. She bore the Sultan six children and her influence over him was such as to make her one of the most powerful women of her age. This and other possible depictions of Roxelana may ultimately derive from a lost portrait by Titian (cf. also the anonymous woodcut published by Mathio Pagani, Venice, circa 1550), who also portrayed Suleyman on several occasions, as well as a daughter identified by Vasari as 'Cameria' (possibly the historical princess Mihrima Sultan, 1522-1578).