Page 79 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

ecclesiastics wore huge stove-pipe hats and
shovel-hats, and he was accompanied by a Tatar
or Kalmuck, possibly his groom, whose Mongol
features, exotic costume, and weaponry caught
the eye of Pisanello. Pisanello used the Tatar
figure in his fresco of Saint Anastasia (San
Zeno, Verona). This was not a continuation of
the fourteenth-century topos of Tatar images
but the reworked gleaning from an actual
incident. 10
Pisanello also produced a portrait of Emperor
John vm that served as the basis for the first
portrait medal of the Renaissance. The visit of
the Byzantines to Italy was commemorated by
other artists such as Filarete, and Byzantine
figures continued to appear in works of art for
several decades, whether for political commen-
tary, as in Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, or
as classical figures, as in the work of Apollonio
11
di Giovanni. The costume of the Byzantines
appealed to an observer such as Vespasiano da
fig. 2. Pinturicchio, Disputation of Saint Catherine. Fresco. Sala dei Santi, Appartamenti Borgia, Vatican Bisticci on two counts: it was grand in appear-
ance and antique in origin, unchanged, or so he
believed, for 1500 years or more. In reality Ves-
pasiano was mistaken, because late Byzantine
costume, their solid presence, and the directness These stereotypes were the visual counterparts costume was under strong influence from the
12
of gaze contrast with the winsomeness of Pin- of the literary fictions of eastern travel then in Muslim world to the East.
turicchio's customary figures. Pinturicchio's vogue, of which the most popular was Sir John
source is traditionally thought to have been Mandeville's travel fantasy (cat. 124) . 5
Gentile Bellini, who visited Istanbul between In fifteenth-century painting, the Muslim
1479 and 1481, but the models are more likely figure expressed three traditional conceptions
to be by another artist who was in Istanbul in of the East —its wealth, its cruelty, and its
the 14705, Costanzo da Ferrara (cat. 108). wisdom. Quasi-Muslim figures did service in
Another Turkish figure is the rider on the the retinue of the Magi, conveying the notion
extreme right of the scene. He is probably to be of eastern luxury in paintings such as Gentile
identified as a historical figure whom Pinturic- da Fabriano's Strozzi Adoration (Uffizi, Flor-
chio could have seen in Rome — the Ottoman ence) and Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in the
6
Prince Cem Sultan (cat. 91), son of Mehmed the chapel of the Medici Palace. Others served as
Conqueror, who spent his last years as a fugitive pagans in scenes of the Crucifixion or Christian
in the West and arrived in Rome in 1489. 4 martyrdom. Often, particularly in northern
As the first Renaissance artists to work in the Europe, the warrior pagan was identified with
7
Muslim East, Gentile and Costanzo were able to a scimitar and pointed hat; in Italy the eastern
bring back the earliest empirically observed sage Avicenna was characterized by a turban,
studies of the Levant, and their visits mark the kaftan, and long beard. 8
beginning of Europe's pictorial documentation These exotic types were based on long-
of the East. We can best appreciate their impor- standing exempla and literary images, and bore
tance and the reason why they visited Ottoman little relation to reality. New models based on
Turkey if we take a brief glance backward. studies from life became available only around
In the early fourteenth century painters such the middle of the fifteenth century, as one
as Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Giotto had made reflection of a growing concern in European art
attempts at realistic depictions of orientals, but with empirical observation. The earliest in-
the figures were mostly Mongol in derivation, stance was not, however, of Muslim Arabs or
who were easily distinguished by their facial Turks but of Byzantine Greeks. In 1438 the
characteristics as well as apparel. The Mongol Byzantine emperor John vm Palaeologus visited
type survived into the second half of the four- Italy for the Councils of Florence and Ferrara.
teenth century and the early fifteenth century John vm himself cut a striking figure: he wore
as a symbol of cruelty and anti-Christian a tall Timurid hat with pointed brim, and his
beliefs. Stereotypes of turbanned Muslims with robe was apparently embroidered with an fig. 3. Pisanello, Portrait of John vm Palaeologus.
less well-defined racial features but identifiable inscription in the name of an Egyptian sultan. 9 National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H.
apparel and accouterments also abounded. His entourage was equally picturesque: his Kress Collection

78 CIRCA 1492