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Medal of Mehmed II, Istanbul or Venice, ca.
1480–81
Gentile Bellini (Venice, ca. 1429–1507)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Samuel H. Kress Collection
(1957.14.737)
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Byzantine goods, artistic trends, and practices were also much
sought after by Seljuk and other Islamic courts. Rulers of Seljuk
Rum and later Ottoman sultans, both ruling in modern Turkey,
adopted Byzantine traditions and as well as Byzantine monuments.
In this artistic exchange between Byzantium and Islam, a much
debated point is the origin of the double-headed
eagle as a symbol of royal power, a figure appearing in
both Seljuk art and that of Byzantium and its Christian neighbors
during the Late Byzantine centuries. Most tellingly, the Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444–46 and 1451–81), who conquered
Constantinople, had Greek scholars at this court and promoted
studies of Greek texts. Examples of Greek-language manuscripts
commissioned by Sultan Mehmed include selections
from the ancient Greek scientists Ptolemy and Dionysius Periegetes,
and the History
of Mehmed’s own reign, composed by Michael Kritoboulos
(d. 1467), a Christian and member of Mehmed II’s court.
Themes in Late Byzantine Art
1. Introduction | 2. Peoples
of the Byzantine Sphere | 3. Visual
Expressions of the Faith | 4. The Byzantine Sphere and the
Islamic World | 5. The Byzantine Sphere and
the West
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