GENTILE BELLINI E L’ORIENTE (GENTILE BELLINI AND...

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MariaPiaPedani

GENTILEBELLINIEL’ORIENTE(GENTILEBELLINIANDTHEEAST)

Summary

IncontripressolaSaladell’AlbergoScuolaGrandediSanMarco

Venice-23June2016

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In August 1479 anOttoman envoywas received inthe Ducal Palace in Venice. His namewas Simone and heinvited the doge to the sünnet (circumcision) festivalorganizedforprinceBayezid’ssons.Hehadalsothetaskofasking for a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a copperfounder and other artisans to be sent to Fatih sultanMehmed’s court. The doge thanked for the invitation butrefused to takepartpersonally to the festivalanddecidedto be represented by the newVenetianbailowhowas onthepointofbeingelected.Hechose,however, to send thepainter Gentile Bellini while the sculptor BartolomeoBellanoatfirstrefusedbutthenhesaidthathewouldhavereachedConstantinopleathisownexpenseslater.

In the same year the king of Naples fulfilled arequestalikesendinganotherpaintertoIstanbul,CostanzofromFerrara,whoremainedthereabouttwoyears.WealsoknowthatinthesameperiodathirdpainterworkedfortheOttoman court andwas very important there («el qual hagraziaet autoritàapresso il SignorTurco»):hisnamewasNakkaşSinan,hehadaGreekorigin,knewhowtowriteinGreek, had a cousin whose name was Pantaleone Arfara,wasinvolvedinmaritimetradeandhadstudiedwithPaolofrom Ragusa, who at his turn had studied with a certainDamiano (perhaps anOttomanmisspelling forDonato, i.e.Donatello?).

WeknowthatatleasttherequestmadeinVenicebythe envoy Simonewas strictly linkedwith the sünnet thattook place in the following year in Edirne, the city ofOttomanciviccelebrationsinthe15thc.Othercelebrationsweremade in 1439 (sünnet ofMurad II’sonsMehmet andAlâeddin Ali, marriage of a prince with an Isferdyaroğluprincessandcaptureof SemendireTower),1442 (captureandexecutionofDüzmeMustafa),1444(religiousholiday),

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1450(marriageofthefutureMehmedIIwithSittiHatunofElbistan), 1457 (sünnet of Mehmed’s sons Bayezit andMustafa), 1472 (sünnet of Mehmed’s sons Cem andAbdullah). Festivals of this kind were organized for thebenefit of large crowdsof people andwereused to stresstheimportanceandthecontinuityoftheOttomandynasty.ThepresenceofEuropeanartistsmaybeexplainedbythefact thatMehmed IIwanted tobe seenas the rulerof theEastandtheWestwhoderivedhispowerfromtheTurkish,Arab,PersianandRomantraditions.

The 1480 festival lasted two months. The princescircumcised were Ahmed (b. 1465), Mahmud (b. 1465?),Korkud (b.1467), Selim (the futureYavuzSultanSelim,b.1470), Şehinşah (b. 1471) and probably Oğuz Han andAlem.Weknow thatGentileBellinimadealsoapictureofthesultanwithayoungboy.

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On the verso of the painting there is written:«Ritratti di Maometto secondo e di suo figlio di GentileBellino» (Portraits of Mehmed II and his son by GentileBellini) but in 1480 the sultan’s son were older than thepersonrepresented in thepicture: inparticularsomebodysawprinceCemintheportraitbuthewasbornin1459andwasthenabout20yearold.Thenwecanthinktooneofthesultan’s grandsons: in particular Ahmed (15), Mahmud(15?) or Korkud (13), since Selim (10) and Şehinşah (9)wereclearlytooyoung.

It is interestingtonote that inBellini’spaintingtheyoung prince has a feather on his turban. In the ancienttimes this symbol was by member of the Gengis Khan’sfamily and the first Ottoman sultan to use it was Selim I(1512-1520). We do not know why he adopted it.Somebody said because he hadmarried a daughter of theTatar khan. If it would have been because of his motherinstead,we can remember thatKorkudandSelimhad thesamemotherandthustheprinceinthepicturecouldhavebeenKorkud.

GentileBellinididnotmakeonlyonepictureof thesultan. Venetian records give us information of otherpictures: in 1648 one of them belonged to the Zen familyliving in thepalaceat theCrociferi,while in1544anotherone (or the same?)was present in the listmade after thedeathofGiacomodallaVedova,whohadbeensecretaryinConstantinople in theyears1531-1533with thevice-bailoPietroZen:«unquadroconelretratodelGranTurcho»).Inthe 16th c. also Paolo Giovio had a portrait of the sultanmadebyBellini.

AmongthemthemostfamousportraitisthatkeptintheNationalGalleryinLondon.ItcanbereadnotonlyasanItalian Renaissance picture of a ruler but also from an

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Ottoman point of view. Thus, the archmay be a gate, thesymbol of justice for the ancient Turkish peoples, usedseveral times in the architecture of the Topkapı. ThecrownsmaybeareferencetothepreviousOttomanrulerssince Mehmed II was the seventh sovereign after threeemirs and three sultans. The jewelled carpet was alsoimportant. Carpets of this kind were used in the roomwherethethronestoodintheImperialPalace.Thepreciousstones too may have a symbolic meaning. The five onesrepeated four times look like those that belonged to theringofOsman, according toamythof theOttoman familyorigins. The pearls are twenty-four as the number of thetribes of Oğuz while it is possible to see twice the nameMehmedwritteninArabiclettersandaseventhcrown.

In1660 inhisLacartadelnavegarpitorescoMarcoBoschini wrote «Ma la più bella zogia de st’autor / Zapuochi zorni è sta portada in Francia… / Questa xe unquadrocheZentilBelin/FeceaCostantinopoli,arichiesta/delbailo…» (Butthemostbeautiful jewelofthisauthorhasbeen brought to France some days ago. It is a picture thatGentileBellinimadeinConstantinopleatthebailo’srequest).Boschinimadeclearlyreferencetothepicturerepresentingthe reception of the Venetian ambassadors in DamascusthathadbeenthesoldtokingLouisXIVandisintheLouvrenow. It cannotbeofBellini but of his school anda recentstudydiscoveredtheyear1511writteninit.Inthispicturewemaynotethat theVenetianambassadorworeagoldenpieceof fabriconhisshoulder.Thiswasasymbolusedbyimportant persons who usually were addressed as«kavalier de la stola d’oro» (knight of the golden stole). Itwasnota realknightorderbutonlyadistinctionusedbycertain importantpersonsormembersof certain families.One of thesewas the Zen one. Thuswemay imagine that

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the person in the picture was Pietro Zen who had beenconsul inDamascus inthoseyears,hadbeenput inprisonbytheMamluksandreleasedin1512.

About1504-1507GentileandGiovanniBellinimadeanother picture inspired to the East. It was St. MarkpreachinginAlexandrianowkeptinthePinacotecadiBrerainMilan,butmadefortheScuolaGrandediSanMarco.

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InthispicturewecanseeseveralOrientalelements.Itisclearlyinspiredbytheso-calledMamlukmodethatwaspresent inVenetianpaintingsbetween theendof the15thandthebeginningofthe16thc.ThebuildingshaveMamlukdecorations.

It is possible to see the column of Pompey’s Pillarand the Lighthouse of Alexandria (totally destroyed in1480)ontherightandtheminaretofibnṬūlūnmosqueofCairoontheleft.

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On the left it is possible to see also the obelisk ofTheodosiusofConstantinople (or thatofHeliopolis ?)andon both sides of the central building there are twostructures that look like the pulpit of the church of St.Mark’sofVenice.

ObeliskofTheodosiusObeliskofHeliopolis

The great building on the foreground hints toByzantine architectures. It has elements of the Chorachurch (Kariye Camii), Aya Sofya, Küçük Aya Sofya ofCostantinople, St. Mark’s of Venice and San Vitale ofRavenna.

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KariyeCamiiAyaSofyaKüçükAyaSofya

St.Mark’sSanVitale

Between the 1490s and 1520s some Venetian

painters chose to represent Eastern persons dressed asMamluksorOttomans.Wemaynote that in thisperiod inVeniceitwaseasytomeetpersonscomingfromthesetwo

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empires. Between 1490 and 1520 thirty one Ottomandiplomatic envoys were received in the Ducal Palace.Mamlukambassadorswerefewer:MuḥammadibnMaḥfūẓarrivedin1476.Then,therewastheinterpreterTaġriBerdīibn ‘Abdullāh from September 1506 to July 1507. He hadwithhimamamluk(militaryslave)whotookthechanceofcoming back to his previous religious faith: his namewasGiacomodaMalnisioandhebecameafamoussoldierintheVenetianarmy.Wealsoknowthatattheendofthe15thc.Mamluk carpets weremade in Venice by a certain ŠabānfromCairo(«Sabadinotapeziero»)whobecameso famousto be called to Ferrarawhere heworked until 1528. AlsosomeVenetianshaddirectcontactswiththeEasternworld.ForinstanceZaccariaPaganfromBellunowrotethereportof the voyage to Cairo of his master, the ambassadorDomenico Trevisan in 1512. He saw the Mamluk sultanQānṣawal-Ġawrīanddescribeshisdressandheadgearverywelltogetherwiththoseofhisofficials.Themanuscriptwasaccompaniedbytwocoloureddrawingsthatstillexistedinthe19thc.,inthecollectionofthePilonifamilywhereitwaskepttogetherwithmanyworksandmanuscriptsbyCesareVecellio. Thus it is possible then that the Vecellio’sdrawingswereinspiredbyPagan’swork.

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Also a famousmapLaveradescritionede lagrancittàdelCaiero,carvedinwoodblocksbyGiovanniDomenicoZorzidi Modone and printed in Venice by Matteo Pagan about1549hashisorigininalostdrawingoftheendofthe15th-beginningof the16th c.because itpresents thebalmtreesgardensthatwerealmostcompletelydestroyedin1494butstill present in 1512. Another image of Cairo of the sameperiod is that present in Niccolò Zoppino, Viaggio daVenetia al Santo Sepulchro (1519). On the contrary nolongerexistentisthemapmadeforthemarquisofMantuaFrancesco II Gonzaga in the hall Camera delle Cittàof hispalace in Gonzaga between 1493-1497: he refused thedrawingpresentedbyGentileBelliniin1493andbasedona sketch of Cairo belonging to «un compatre de messerBellino» (a godfather (?) of sir Bellini, Bellini was born in1429). The following year the picture was made on thebasis of a map belonging to Francesco Teldi, who themarquis himself saw in Venice. Teldi was a Venetianmerchantofpreciousstonesandin1504hewaschosentogo to Cairo to suggest to dig a channel in the Isthmus ofSuez.UnfortunatelyhediedthesameyearandsuchanideawasleftasidebytheCouncilofTen.

The most ancient headgear used by the MuslimrulersofEgyptwasthešarbūš,atriangularshapedcapthatlookedlikeacrownandhadnokerchiefaround.Itwasusedby the Ayyubids (1174-1250) and the Turkish baḥriMamluks (1250-1380 about), but it was abolished by theCircassianburǧiMamluks(1380about-1517).

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Giotto,Trialbyfire(1325about,Florence,CappelladeiBardi)

Giotto(attr.),St.Francisinfrontofthesultan(1295-99about,Assisi)

The šarbūš is not present in the Venetian “Mamluk

mode” paintings that however present a real collection oftheheadgearsused inEgyptat theendof the15thc. InSt.MarkpreachinginAlexandria, for instance,it ispossible torecognizethekallawta. Inoriginitwasasmall,yellowcapwithout any turbanwrappedaroundwhile thehairswerelongandfeltdownlooselyonthenecks.Atthetimeofthesultan al-Ašraf Ḫalīl (1290-1293) its colour was changedfrom yellow to red and a turbanwaswrapped around it.Whenal-NāṣirMuḥammadibnQalāwūn(1293-1294,1299-1309, 1310-41) had his head completely shaved after hewentonapilgrimagein1332hisentouragecopiedhimandthelossofhairmadethekallawtamuchbiggerinsizeandofbetterquality.

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GiovanniMansueti,TheCaptureofSt.MarkintheSynagogue,1499

GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

Then therewas the taḫfīfaṣaġīra (the small lighterone). Its first mention dates back to the time of Barqūq(1382-1389, 1390-1399) ho used it in public in 1394. Itbecameincrisinglypopularonlyatthemiddleofthe15thc.After1467he isregularlymentioned inthesourcesand itwaswornaboveallbytheMamlukemirsoncertainpublicbutnotofficialoutings.Twokindsof it existed: the roundone(mudawwara)

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GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

andthesmoothone(mumallasa).

GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

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Anonimous,TheVenetianambassadorsreceivedinDamascus,1511

Thetaḫfīfakabīra (thebig lighterone)wasanother

headgear used by the sultans when they went out onhorseback, covered by a parasol. It had the end of theturban(taylasan)embroideredwiththegoldentitlesoftheruler coming down on his left shoulder. This device wasperhaps used to remember symbolically that the sultanswere all slaves because Joseph in the Bible had the hairscomingdownontheleftpartofhisfaceasalltheEgyptianslavesinhistimes.

VittoreCarpaccio,ThetriumphofSt.George,1502

The largest version of the taḫfīfakabīrawas called

nā‘ūra (waterwheel) and it appeared for the first time in1496 to remember either Alexander the Great (Ḏū al-Qarnayn, the “two-horned” in theKoran) or, in fabric, thecrownof the ancient Sassanidkings. From1501onwards,

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when Qānṣaw al-Ġawrī (1501-1516) ascended to thethrone, thesultansused itasacrown.Usually thesultan’sonehadsixhorns,the100menemirs’oneshadfourhorns,whilethe10menemirshadtwohorns.

VittoreCarpaccio,ThetriumphofSt.George,1502

GiovanniMansueti,St.MarkhealsAnianus,about1518-26

Another headgear used by ordinary mamluks was

the ṭāqīya, a cylindrical hatwith a flat top. Itwas usuallyone-sixth of an ell high. At the beginning of the 15th c. itbecame taller until it reached two-thirds of an ell and theupperparttooktheshapeofasmalldome.Thiswastheso-calledCircassian.Attheendofthecenturytherewasatwo-

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colored version with the upper part green and the lowerpartblack.

GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

GiovanniMansueti,St.MarkhealsAnianus,about1518-26

Itisthattheredzamṭwasinoriginthecapoflower

classes but in 1422 sultan Barsbāy forbade the fellās(peasants) from wearing it and it was used only by theMamluk soldiers paid by the emirs or the sultan himself.After the Ottoman conquest of Egypt it was consider asymbolofthepastmilitaryéliteandin1518and1521lawswereissuedtoforbadeitsuse.

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VittoreCarpaccio,St.GeorgebaptizingtheSelenites,1507

GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

Thehugeandround‘imāmawastheturbanwornbyulema.ItwasusednotonlyinMamlukEgyptbutalsointheOttoman Empire. There it was called yusufi and it waschosen by Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) as hisownheadgear.

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GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

Tiziano,SuleymantheMagnificent,about1530

InMamluksocietythedressesweremoreorlessthe

same for Christians and Muslims, but in 1354 it wasestablished that Christians could use only blue headgearsand awhite shoe and a black one, while Jews had to useyellow headgears. White remained only for Muslims andgreen turbans were used only by the descendants of theProphet.

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GiovanniMansueti,ScenesofSt.Mark’slife,about1518-26

WecannoteherethatinVenice,incampodeiMori,

there are four statues three of them wear turbans. Theydate back to the middle of the 15th c. and according thetraditiontheyrepresent threebrotherscoming fromMorawho,onwearing Islamicdresses,wanted toshowthat thegoodstheysoldcamefromtheEast.

Venezia,CampodeiMori(middleofthe15thc.)

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TwoancientchronicleskeptintheMarcianaLibrary(cl. VII cod. 27)make reference to these statues. The firstsays:

Veggonsi oggidì le antiche habitationi della casa Mastelliappresso Santa Maria dell’Orto et specialmente le rovine d’unsontuosoedificio,negliangolidelqualesonocollocatetregrandifigure di marmo d’uomini vestiti alla greca i quali, sostenendotuttol’edificiotengonosopralespalleunfardello,aguisad’unavaligia,perdimostrationeforsedellericchezzedaloroportateinVenetia, nelle quali sono scolpiti i nomi dei tre primi autori diquesta casa, et per questa cagione il ponte ivi vicino cheattraversailcanaldellaMisericordiavienechiamatodeiMori.

andtheother:Negli anni del Signore MCXII tre fratelli greci, Rioba, Sandi etAfani, per le seditioni civili fuggitisi dalla Morea, ovepossedevanomoltegiurisditioni,siricoveraronocongrandiaveriin Venetia et edificarono l’abitationi loro molto honorevoliappresso il Ponte dei Mori così detto per le figure dei tresopradettifratellicheneiangolidellafabbricainsiemecoinomilorosiveggonoscolpite.

Ifwereadcarefullythesesourceswerealizethatthe

statuesarenowfourandnotthreeasasserted;onlytwoofthem have (or had) clearly a bundles on their shoulders;only twowear Greek dresses. On the contrary two of thestatues wear huge ‘imāma turbans and they have alsoscarfes and long dresses as those used by the men ofreligion togetherwithabox that looks like thatonceusedtobeg.

In St. Mark preaching in Alexandria there is also apersonwearinganOttomanturban.

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GentileeGiovanniBellini,St.MarkpreachinginAlexandria,1504-1507

According to the tradition it was Alaeddin, son of

Osman, who would have chosen the white colour for theOttoman turbans, to distinguish them from the headgearsused by Byzantines and Turkmen. For the most ancientrulers the fez (mücevveze), coveredwith a white piece offabric(dülbent),wasredbutin1371MuradI(1359-1389)choose the golden colour for it. Mehmed II (1451-1481)cameback to red,whileBayezid II (1481-1512)wanted agreenmücevveze.EveryOttomansultandecidedwhichkindof turban he wanted to wear when he ascended to thethrone. Selim I (1512-1520) covered completely themücevvezewiththedülbent.Atthebeginningofthereignofthis ruler Ottomans left aside the turbanwhich show theendsofthepiecesoffabric.

VittoreCarpaccio,St.GeorgeBaptizingtheSelenites,1507

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TheMamlukstyle inVenetianpaintingsstartedat theendofthereignofthesultanQā‘itBay(1468-1496)andendedafter the conquest of Egypt by the Ottomans. Under thereign of Qânsûh al-Ghawrî, Mamluks and Venetians wereunited to fight the Portuguese but I do not think thatpolitical relations between the two countries greatlyinfluences theperception that thepainters of theMamlukmodehadoftheEast.Itismoreprobablethatthepresencein Venice of personswho had lived for years in Egypt orSyriaandwereinstrictcontactwithMansueti,CarpaccioorBellini may have influenced them. They too, perhaps,belonged to the Scuola Grande di San Marco and had adirect interest in presenting the East they had directlyknownduringtheirtravels.

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