Page 211 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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tian official resident in Damascus, being received accurately rendered, from the wooden armatures
Circle of Gentile Bellini by a senior Mamluk official, probably the na'ib or of the brick housing of Damascus to the minarets
Venetian governor of Damascus. The na'ib is seated on a of the Great Mosque, which are shown complete
dais (mastaba), and his rank is confirmed by his with their struts for hanging lamps; in fact, the
THE RECEPTION OF THE curious "horned" turban, a type used only by the painting provides the only extant visual record of
AMBASSADORS IN DAMASCUS Mamluk Sultan and his top officials. The figure is the double tambour of the dome of the Great
flanked by members of the Mamluk military elite. Mosque. The angle and distance from which the
c. 1488-1499 The topicality of this tableau contrasts with that Great Mosque is depicted suggest that the painter
oil on canvas on the left of the picture, which is a generalized had a view from the Venetian fondaco, or com-
7
175 x 201 (68 /s x yyVs) rendering of a street scene with a mounted mercial center, which was situated to the south of
references: Sauvaget 1945—1946; Pallucchini 1966,
49—51; Raby 1982, 55-60, n. 51, 63, n. 86 Mamluk, armed attendant and two camel drivers the mosque (Sauvaget 1945-1946).
with their beasts. The compositional link between The identification of the setting as Damascus
Musee du Louvre, Paris, Departement des Peintures the two scenes is provided by a third group which puts to rest a long-held belief that the painting
occupies the immediate central foreground. This was by Gentile Bellini and depicted the Court of
This painting is a landmark in Europe's visual depicts three figures in conversation, while a Mehmed the Conqueror in Istanbul. This attribu-
record of the East, the earliest known attempt to young boy nearby holds a monkey on a leash. A tion can be traced back at least to the seventeenth
represent a realistic panorama of an exotic loca- sequence of animals — camels on the left, a mon- century, when it was recorded by Boschini. There
tion. The remarkable accuracy of its details makes key in the center, and deer on the right—provides is no evidence that Gentile Bellini ever visited the
it a valuable source for the architecture and cos- not only incidental interest, but also additional Mamluk domains of Syria and Egypt, and the
tumes of late fifteenth-century Damascus. coherence by linking the parts of the immediate attribution is a clear example of how the legends
The painting is divided into two registers: the foreground. that grew up around Gentile Bellini's visit to
upper shows the skyline of Damascus, dominated The contrived composition of the lower register Istanbul influenced the understanding of almost
by the minarets, gable, and dome of the eighth- does little, however, to diminish the immediacy all early European depictions of the East. It was
century Great Mosque. The lower register is a and realism of the painting as a whole. The city is effectively abandoned when in 1895 Charles
somewhat contrived juxtaposition of three scenes: minutely observed, even down to minor details Schefer correctly identified the setting as Mamluk
on the right is a historical incident that depicts a such as the body-harness of the monkey and the rather than Ottoman.
Venetian deputation, perhaps the bailo, the Vene- Mamluk blazons on the walls. The architecture is Schefer, however, mistakenly identified the

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