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Secondary sourcePainting1480 (painting); slide made between 1839 and 1939

Sultan Mehmet II (Gentile Bellini), lantern slide copy

Gentile Bellini · 1480 (painting); slide made between 1839 and 1939

A lantern slide photograph of Gentile Bellini's 1480 portrait of Sultan Mehmed II. The slide is a later copy, not the painting itself.

A later copy of a portrait of Mehmed II, showing how European artists and teachers pictured the sultan.

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Lantern slide photograph of Gentile Bellini's portrait of Sultan Mehmed II. A man in profile faces left, wearing a large white turban and a fur-collared robe, inside an ornate arched frame with crowns and decorated pedestal. Black slide mount with labels reading Bellini (Gentile) Mahomet II (1479-80) London National Gallery and Université de Louvain.
Gentile Bellini, Sultan Mehmet II, 1480, lantern slide copy. Catholic University of Leuven.

About this source

What it is

This is a lantern slide, a glass slide used for projecting images in lectures, copying Gentile Bellini's portrait of Sultan Mehmed II. The painting is dated 1480, and the record lists its current location as The National Gallery in London. The slide was made between 1839 and 1939 by an unknown photographer at the Université de Louvain. It is held by the Catholic University of Leuven.

Why it matters

The painting shows the sultan in profile, a rare portrait of an Ottoman ruler made by a Venetian-era European artist. Slides like this one were used to teach art history, so the image reached students in a classroom long after it was painted. The slide shows how a European view of the sultan was passed on through lectures.

Look closer

  • What details of clothing and setting can you see, and what do they suggest about the sultan's status?
  • Why might an art history teacher have used a glass slide instead of the painting itself?
  • What does this portrait tell us about the artist's view of the sultan, and what might it leave out?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Mehmed II on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Painted portrait of a bearded man in profile facing left, wearing a large white turban with a red cap beneath, a brown fur-trimmed robe over red garments. He is set within a gilded arched frame with crowns at the top corners, above a richly patterned gold and red cloth-covered ledge.Painting

Primary source

The Sultan Mehmet II

Gentile Bellini · 1480

A painted portrait in profile of a bearded man in a large white turban with a red cap on top, wearing a blue and olive-green robe with red trim and white fur-lined collar. He holds a red rose to his nose with one hand.Painting

Primary source

Portrait of Mehmed II Smelling a Rose

Attributed to Nakkaş Sinan Beg · c. 1480-81

Rumeli Hisarı fortress on a hillside above the Bosphorus strait. Stone walls with crenellations, round towers with conical-topped turrets, green trees on the slope, a Turkish flag on a tower, and a calm blue waterway in the foreground.Artifact

Primary source

Rumeli Hisarı

1451-1452

Evening view across the water of a long walled palace complex on a hillside, with domed pavilions, a tall pointed tower, many chimneys, and dense trees. A white two-deck ferry with a red Turkish flag sails in the foreground on the blue water.Artifact

Primary source

Topkapı Palace

from 1459

Scan of an Ottoman imperial decree on a tall cream-colored parchment with an arched top. Red Arabic-script tughra-style calligraphy sits at the top, a black tughra monogram with flourishes is in the upper middle, and several lines of black cursive script fill the lower part.Document

Primary source

Ahdname of Fojnica

Mehmed II · 1463

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