Gentile Bellini and the "Great Turk"
In August, 1479, indeed, only shortly after peace with Venice was signed after decades of war, he asked, as part of the negotiations, that "a good painter who knows how to paint portraits" be sent to him. Enter Gentile Bellini.
The Venetian painter stayed for a little over a year (until the end of 1480 or early 1481), during which time the favours bestowed by the sultan were, if we are to believe the sources, prodigious. Several drawings show that the Venetian paid a great deal of attention to everything new he discovered in the streets of Istanbul, and sources refer to several commissions emanating from the seraglio. But the primary result of this visit was the portrait of the sultan, which is now in the National Gallery in London. It is a work of exceptional cultural hybridization, which must be approached and analysed in this light.