Venice as we know it is inconceivable without the'cast'- the myriad of Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultures which bordered the eastern Mediterranean Sea and provided gateways to Asia and Africa beyond. This exhibition focuses on just one episode in this millenium-long exchange: Gentile Bellini's response to the east in the late fifteenth century. In his lifetime, Gentile was Venice's most prestigious painter and in I479 he was sent by the Venetian Senate to work for Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople. But Gentile also responded to other aspects of the east, including the Byzantine Greek Empire as well as Venice's other trading partners in North Africa and the Levant.

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At the turn of the fifteenth century Venice was Europe's window onto the 'east'- the Byzantine, Islamic and Jewish cultures that line the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The city dominated trade in luxury goods such as carpets, glass, ceramics and other crafts, but ideas and aesthetics were also exchanged, providing a cultural fusion that inspired Venetian painters.

This book examines one aspect of this rich tradition: Gentile Bellini's response to the east. Attentive to the Byzantine world, the painter was influenced by Greek art in Venice and its colonies, and by the presence of the Byzantine patriarch Cardinal Bessarion, who had moved to Italy. He included exotic objects in his paintings and depicted Catarina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus.

In I479, after Venice established peace with the Turks, Gentile was sent to Constantinople to work for Sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of the Byzantine Empire. In part due to the sultan's interest in European art, the artist was an important ambassador between eastern and western cultures. We know that he made a portrait of Mehmed, now in the National Gallery, London, a medal and several drawings of local figures, which give a vivid picture of what he found in Turkey, and all are shown here. Other works by related artists are also discussed in this context.

Gentile Bellini is often overshadowed by his more famous brother, Giovanni, but for much of his lifetime, Gentile was regarded as Venice's most important painter. Bellini and the East offers a reconsideration of Gentile's artistic personality, and his fascination with the world of Mehmed II.

Caroline Campbell is Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London, and was formerly Assistant Curator of Renaissance Paintings at the National Gallery, London. Alan Chong is Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Deborah Howard is Professor of Architectural History and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. J.M. Rogers is Honorary Curator of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. He was Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London.

Directors' Foreword

Curators' Introduction

Acknowledgements

Map

Chronology

Venice, the Bazaar of Europe

DEBORAH HOWARD

The Bellini, Bessarion and Byzantium

CAROLINE CAMPBELL

Italian images of Mebmed the Conqueror

Mehmed the Conqueror: between East and West

J.M. ROGERS

Bellini in Istanbul

Gentile Bellini in Istanbuh Myths and Misunderstandings

ALAN CHONG

References

BibliograFb.y

Exhibited Works and Lenders

Pbotograpbic Credits

Index