y. In 1479 an emissary from the Sultan
Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested the Signoria to recommend a good
painter and a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen, and departed
in September for Constantinople. He painted many subjects for the
private apartments of the Sultan, as well as the famous portrait now in
the possession of Lady Layard. It would be difficult for a historic
portrait to show more insight into character. The face is cold, weary,
and sensual, with all the over-refined look of an old race and a long
civilisation, and has a melancholy note in its distant and satiated
gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile every mark of favour, loaded him with
presents, and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He returned home in
1493, bringing with him many sketches of Eastern personages and the
picture, now in the Louvre, representing the reception of a Venetian
Embassy by the Grand Vizier. Some five years before Gentile's commission
to Constantinople Antonello da Messina had arrived in Venice, and the
spread and popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the casting off
of outworn ecclesiastical methods and brought the painters nearer to the
truth of life. Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the notice
of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo Vivarini was already using them in
1473, but he was well known by reputation before he arrived, and having
probably come into contact with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had
better opportunities of seizing upon the new technique, and was able to
establish it both in Milan and in Venice. A large number of Venetians
were at this time resident in Messina: the families of Lombardo,
Gradenigo, Contarini, Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those
who had members settled there. Many of these were patrons of art, and
probably paved the way to Antonello's reception in Venice. At first all
the traits of Antonello's early work are Flemish: the full mantles,
white linen caps and tuckers, the straight sharp folds and long wings of
the angels have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to Venice in 1475,
its colour and life fascinate him, and a great change comes over his
work. His portraits show that he grasped a new intensity of life,
and let us into the character of the men he saw around him. His
"Condottiere," in the Louvre, declares the artist's recognition of
that truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic disdain, the
product of a daring, unscrupulous life. The "Portr