Art Blog

Bellini and the East

National Gallery: 12 April - 25 June 2006

Bellini, 'Seated Scribe' about 1479-80. © Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Photo: Tom Lingner.

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire. This event transformed European politics, culture and society. This focused exhibition will examine images of the Muslim and Christian Eastern Mediterranean that were produced subsequently by the great Venetian painters Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.
Gentile Bellini spent some time in Istanbul as the guest of Sultan Mehmet II, and was fascinated by the Sultan's court and city. The work reflects their knowledge of and sympathetic interest in both Byzantium, and the Islamic civilisation that followed it. Greek architecture and painting were the basis of Venetian art, and many Byzantine Greeks felt an affinity to Venice. ...

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