It embodies the Timurid-Turkmen style embraced by the Karamanid principality of central Anatolia, recently eliminated by Mehmed II. As architectural representations of major kingdoms united by the sultan (Ottoman, Byzantine, and Karamanid), these pavilions expressed the universalism of his vision of empire with their stylistic pluralism. 20

Gentile Bellini, who resided in Istanbul between 1479 and 1481 with his two Venetian assistants, is said to have decorated some halls of the Topkapl Palace. Only a few of the works created by Italian artists in those years have survived (cat. no. 299). They include Mehmed II's medallic and painted portraits, which proclaim imperial status and territorial dominion as does the Topkapl Palace (cat. no. 307, 308, 309, fig. 8). In fact, bringing together diverse elements of his patronage discussed so far, these portraits can be read as carefully crafted examples of Renaissance self-fashioning. It was after 1477 that the sultan issued a dynastic law code redefining his public image in court ceremonies with a new FROM BYZANTION TO ISTANBUL 8000 YEARS OF A CAPITAL 271 272

FROM BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE TO OTTOMAN KOSTANTINIYYE GOLRU NECipOGLU emphasis on majestic imperial seclusion. 21 The refashioning of imperial identity at the zenith of his power coincided with the completion of the Topkapl Palace in 1478, the same year that the endowments of his mosque complex were furnished with sizable commercial establishments. His augmented prestige was also expressed by the unprecedented minting of gold coins from 882 (1477-78) onwards, called "sultanic" (sultcmf), whose Arabic inscriptions extol him as the "Issuer of gold coins, the Lord of Power and Victory on the Lands and the Seas" (cat. no. 314).22 Mehmed II's western artistic horizons, expanding along with the Cat. 314 Coin of Mehmed II 1477-78 Yapl Kredi Vedat Nedim Tor MuseulU Istanbul, Turkey

The Latin-inscribed portraits of the sultan by these artists advertise his status as emperor both visually and verbally. His previous medallic portraits from the 1460s also featured Latin inscriptions, the lingua franca of the Latin West, rather than Greek inscriptions as seen on Pisanello's medal of the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (cat. no. 272). Those early medals are inscribed with translations of the young sultan's relatively modest titulature, whereas later examples exalt him as "emperor." One of them is an undated (ca. 1478) medal signed by Costanzo, a follower of Pisanello. The equestrian image on its reverse, echoing classical Greco Roman imperial iconography, is often compared with that of the penultimate Byzantine emperor on Pisanello's medal. Costanzo's unusually large