Page 78 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

PICTURING THE LEVANT

Julian Raby

In 1492 two paintings that were to depict successfully that they converted to Christianity figures are so prominent in Pinturicchio's
scenes set in the eastern half of the Old World, and were prepared to die for their new belief, fresco: several members of the crowd wear
in the Levant, were commissioned in Italy. Both Saint Catherine became the protectress of those quasi-oriental outfits that look no more con-
paintings were to take as their subject a saint with the name Alexander. She is also the pro- vincing than fancy dress, but there are also
associated with the city of Alexandria in Egypt, tectress of bastards, and, in Corrado Ricci's three more accurately attired oriental figures,
both used oriental figures in an attempt to words, 'Alexander had good reason to commend who can be identified as Ottoman Turks, one of
convey an Egyptian setting, and both based his sons to her. //2 them wearing the tall felt hat of the Janissaries.
their depictions of Muslims from studies drawn Such explanations trivialize, however, the Pinturicchio thus conveyed the contemporary
from life. In this sense the two paintings reflect role that the Disputation plays in the program concerns of his patron rather than an historicist
a fundamental change and significant develop- of the frescoes of the Sala dei Santi. The fres- interest in conveying an idea of Alexandria,
ment; for the first time, Europeans had begun coes depict instances of how the Lord rescued where the disputation took place. In this respect
to acquire realistic images of the Muslim world. His saints in times of need. The saints are his approach differed fundamentally, as we shall
In most other respects the two paintings dif- emblematic of the Church, and the Disputation, see, from that of Gentile Bellini. Pinturicchio
fered greatly, and their differences can tell us which is the culminating scene, appears to refer made no attempt to indicate an Alexandrian
much about how Europe had acquired these new to Pope Alexander's concern at the threat that locale for the incident. The major element of
images of the East and how it reacted to them. the Church faced from the Muslims. As a Span- architecture was a triumphal arch based on the
One was Gentile Bellini's Saint Mark Preaching iard himself, Pope Alexander perhaps made the Arch of Constantine, but it served not as an
in Alexandria (Brera, Milan), for the Scuola di particular choice of Saint Catherine because it indication of place, but as a symbol of Constan-
San Marco in Venice, to which we shall return was on her feast day that the capitulation of tine's victory, which took place a few years after
later. The other was Pinturicchio's fresco of the Granada, the last Moorish Kingdom of Spain, Saint Catherine's supposed disputation. 3
Disputation of Saint Catherine in the Sala dei took place. Pinturicchio was better able to convey Pope
Santi in the Borgia Apartments in Rome. 1 But above all Rodrigo Borgia, like his uncle Alexander's Ottoman concerns because he had
Pinturicchio's fresco was painted for Rodrigo Pope Calixtus in before him, was concerned recently acquired realistic depictions of Turks.
Borgia, Pope Alexander vi. As a saint of Alex- with the threat to Christianity from the Otto- Two Turkish figures are depicted flanking the
andria, who is said to have disputed the mys- man Turks, and he had long advocated a crusade Tetrarch Maximinus' throne. That they are
teries of the faith with fifty philosophers so against them. This helps explain why Turkish borrowings is clear because the accuracy of their

fig. i. Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria, c. 1504-1507, oil on canvas. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 77