Medal, bronze, bust of Mehmed II, Turkish Sultan, by Bertoldo di Giovanni, Italy (Florence), second half of 15th century

Obverse:
Profile bust of Mehmed II, Sultan of Turkey. He has a close trimmed beard, wears a turban, and a crescent moon medallion. Inscription
Reverse:
Triumphal chariot drawn by two rearing horses. Mars leads them by the reigns, wearing his helmet and carrying a trophy over his left shoulder. The chariot is decorated on the side by a swag between two lion's masks, and a flaming throne. A man with a flying cloak stands on top of the car, carrying a small figure in his left hand. In his right hand he holds a rope or cord which encircles three naked women standing upright in the chariot, wearing spiked crowns and tagged with the names of the territories they embody. Underneath this scene recline a man and a woman, representing the Earth and the Sea. Inscription.

Bertoldo di Giovanni was household sculptor to the Medici family and designed this, his only signed medal, under the patronage of Lorenzo de’Medici in Florence c.1480. Bertoldo himself never went to the Sultans court, although an envoy from Mehmed II to Florence requested artists to be sent. The likeness is probably derived from the artist Gentile Bellini's portrait medal, which the Sultan commissioned of himself during Bellini's time in the sultans court in Istanbul, or perhaps from an image sent by Mehmed to Florence. It is likely Lorenzo commissioned this medal as a gift in gratitude for Mehmed’s seizure of the man who assassinated his brother, Guiliano de’Medici, in the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478. The reverse celebrates Mehmed's military glory and connects him visually with the Triumphs of the Roman Emperors, thus flattering Mehmed's position as self-styled heir to the Holy Roman Empire after his capture of Constantinople and defeat of the remains of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
From the Salting bequest.

Historical significance: Mehmed II’s image was disseminated throughout Italy and Western Europe by means of the portrait medal, an art form developed in Italy in the fifteenth century by Pisanello and Filarette. Based as it was on the artistic traditions of ancient Greece and Rome, the portrait medal had both Eastern and Western origins that meant it was able to utilise a shared cultural language to convey its messages between East and West. Although they are now viewed as part of a Western art tradition, at its point of origin in the fifteenth century this was a shared art form.

Pollard (2007) points out that the impresa of a flaming chair on the side of the triumphal car on the reverse of the medal is the siege perilous an impresa used by the Aragonese kings of Naples. They were an enemy of Florence at the time and also the likely victims of the Mehmed's invasion plans (although the Turks were eventually expelled from Ottranto in 1481). Pollard goes on to surmise that this medal was propaganda by Lorenzo in support of Turkish designs on Italy.

Constantinople, capital of the once great Byzantine Empire and later to be renamed Istanbul, fell to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453 when he was only 21 years old. The Ottoman Turkish Empire caused a great deal of anxiety to the Christian world as it expanded under his rule, and he was almost continually at war with Europe. Later in his rule, during peace treaties with various Italian states, artists such as Bellini and Costanza de Ferrara were sent out by their patrons at Mehmed's request to work at the court in Istanbul and produced representations of the Sultan which were disseminated through Europe.

Bertoldo di Giovanni was household sculptor to the Medici family in Florence and designed this, his only signed medal, under the patronage of Lorenzo de'Medici (Il Magnifico) in about 1480. An envoy was sent from Mehmed II requesting artists be sent from Florence to Istanbul, however Bertoldo himself never went to the Sultan's court. He probably derived this portrait from the artist Gentile Bellini's portrait medal of Mehmed II, executed during his time in the Sultan's court, an example of which may have been sent to Florence as a diplomatic gift. Lorenzo may have commissioned this medal in turn in gratitude for the Sultan's seizure of the man who assassinated his brother, Guiliano de'Medici, in the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478, and to demonstrate Florentine artistic pre-eminence.

The reverse of the medal shows a triumphal chariot holding the personifications of Ottoman conquered territories. It celebrates Mehmed's military glory and connects him visually with the Triumphs of the Roman Emperors, thus flattering his position as self-styled heir to the Holy Roman Empire after his capture of Constantinople and defeat of the remains of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The impresa of a flaming chair used by the Kings of Naples, enemies of Florence at that time, is depicted on the side of the triumphal chariot. This highly political portrait medal implies Lorenzo's support of the imminent Turkish invasion of the Kingdom of Naples.

A.202-1910