The Horror of Mimesis
2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/oxartj/kcr037
ISSN1741-7287
Autores ResumoIn 1834, the history and portrait painter Francesco Hayez exhibited a composition at the Brera which bore the following title: ‘Gentile Bellini, accompanied by the Venetian bailo, in the act of presenting to Sultan Mehmed II his painting, in which is depicted the beheaded St John the Baptist’ (Fig. 1).1 The descriptive caption refers to an apocryphal vignette in Carlo Ridolfi's biographies of Venetian painters, Le maraviglie dell'arte (1648).2 Having travelled from Venice to Istanbul, Gentile Bellini astonishes the Sultan with his portraits, canvases that, as Ridolfi declares, verge on becoming breathing figures. The vignette then takes a proverbial bad turn: Gentile next paints for the Sultan a head of St John the Baptist. Although praising Gentile's diligence, the Sultan points out an error: the neck protrudes too much from the head. Gentile remains doubtful towards the Sultan's assessment. And so to display how such a severed head would appear in life, ‘il naturale effetto’ as Ridolfi puts it, Mehmed II has a slave beheaded for the artist's benefit.3
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