Page 212 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

scene as the Reception of the Venetian Ambassa- 10/ < Matteo as he was en route to Istanbul. Before
dor Domenico Trevisano in Cairo in 1512. The Matteo's visit was aborted, the sultan and Sigis-
choice of city was wrong, but Schefer's dating Costanzo da Ferrara mondo Malatesta, the ruler of Rimini, corre-
encouraged a spate of alternative attributions, as Venetian sponded on the subject of portraits and their role
Gentile Bellini was known to have died in 1507. PORTRAIT MEDAL OF MEHMED n in ensuring a person's immortality. The medal by
These have ranged from "School of Gentile Bel- Costanzo certainly helped disseminate Mehmed's
lini " to Carpaccio, Vincenzo Catena, Antonio c. 1460-147^ image; it is probably the medal referred to by the
Badile, Vittore Belliniano, and most recently Ben- bronze Mantuan ambassador in 1489 (von Pastor 1959,
7
edetto Diana (Raby 1982, 63, n.86). None of these diameter 12.3 (4 /s) 31259), and both Paolo Giovio and Vasari owned
attributions is supported by stylistic, thematic, or inscribed, first state (on the obverse): SVITANVS examples, though they attributed the authorship
circumstantial arguments that are convincing, MOHAMETH OTHOMANVS TVRCORVM IMPERATOR/ (on to Pisanello.
however, and for the time being the painter must the reverse) HIC BELLI FVLMEN POPVLOS PROSTRAVIT ET As the only surviving signed work by Costanzo,
remain anonymous. VRBES (and signed in a tabula ansataj CONSTANTIUS F the medal is central to any attempt to reconstruct
The date of the painting can no longer be fixed references: Karabacek 1918; Hill 1926, 287-298; his oeuvre. It suggests a talent that deserves
by reference to Gentile Bellini's visit to Istanbul Hill 1930, 80, no. 321-322; von Pastor 1959, 3:259; recognition; like Pisanello, Costanzo combined
Dizionario biografico
1960—, 30:394-396; Hill and
in 1479-1481 nor by Trevisano's reception in Pollard 1967, no. 102; Andaloro 1980; Raby 1987 glyptic and graphic skills; Summonte, in a letter
Cairo in 1512. The work must, however, have of 1524, describes him as "above all else an out-
been painted between 1488 and 1499. In 1488 the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. standing draughtsman."
Mamluk Sultan Qa'it Bay had the western Kress Collection He led a peripatetic existence: he was Venetian
minaret of the Great Mosque erected in the form Costanzo's medal is the most powerful preserved in origin and spent time in Lombardy and Ferrara
in which it appears on the left of the painting, portrait of Mehmed n, the Ottoman sultan who before settling in Naples in the 14705. The only
while Giovanni Mansueti's Arrest of St. Mark of seized Constantinople in 1453 and thus ended recorded source for his trip to Turkey is a letter by
1499 contains numerous borrowings from the the Byzantine Empire. It conveys an impression the Este ambassador Battista Bendidio, dated 1485,
Louvre painting. of considerable physical presence and awesome in which he says that Costanzo went to Turkey
The Louvre Reception had a considerable intensity, warranting the claim made in the gia piu anni (already several years ago), stayed
impact when it arrived in Venice. For a decade or inscription on the obverse that Mehmed was the there for molti anni (many years), and was made
so it inspired an oriental mode in Venetian paint- "Thunderbolt of War/' He not only fills most a cavaliere in recompense. Costanzo was sent
ing with specific reference to the Mamluks. It of the picture space of the medal, but his broad, to Istanbul by Ferrante of Naples, but political
provided many of the details for the cycle of the sweeping collar rides up high from the surface, relations between Naples and Istanbul were so
life of Saint Mark that Gentile Bellini and Gio- giving the medal a greater three-dimensionality strained between 1471 and 1475 that the visit
vanni Mansueti painted for the Scuola di San than is usual for the period. On the reverse the must have taken place either in the 14605 or
Marco. Its influence can be felt even in the work sultan is shown riding in a rocky landscape with between 1475 and 1478. The traditional date for
of Albrecht Diirer, who visited Venice in 14947 leafless trees, reminiscent of Pisanello's medallic the medal of 1478 is not, however, based on any
1495 and again in 1505 (Raby 1982). compositions (see the essay by Julian Raby in this firm evidence.
The painting's influence stems from the fact catalogue). The medal is known in two versions, of which
that it combined exotic picturesqueness with the The medal serves to remind us of Mehmed's the earlier is that in the National Gallery of Art,
meticulous attention to detail that characterized interests in Western culture in general and in a unique specimen. The second, which is signed
the late fifteenth-century "inventory school" of portrait medals in particular. He was patron to a Opus Constantii, is dated 1481. As this was the
Venetian historical painting, which relied on the great number of medalists. He even attempted year Mehmed died, it was probably reissued on
accumulation of gem-like detail. It was the first to obtain the services of Pisanello's leading fol- the news of his death and tells us little about the
European picture to provide such a tangible record lower, Matteo de'Pasti, but the Venetians arrested date of Costanzo's visit to Turkey. J.R.
of the East, and no painter attempted a comparable
scene until the mid-sixteenth century. The paint-
ing's charm was summarized by Boschini in the
seventeenth century:
Se vede in prospetiva un'armonia
De fabriche diverse, che inamora;
Ghe xe Cameli, Cervi, Simie e tante
Diversita de cose curiose,
D'abiti e de persone capriciose,
Dele piu bele che abita el Levante.
(Pallucchini 1966, 49-51)

In perspective can be seen a harmony
Of diverse buildings that enchants;
There are camels, deer, monkeys and such
A diversity of curious things,
Of costumes and of delightful people,
Among the most beautiful that live in the Levant.
J.R.

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 211