Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/176

168 much of the divinity as to he capable of reproducing natural objects so faithfully. Gentile had been no long time in Constantinople before he portrayed the Emperor Mahomet from the life, and so exactly, that it was considered a miracle. Then the Sultan, after having seen many proofs of his ability in that art, desired to know if the painter had courage to take his own likeness? to which Gentile having replied that he had, many days had not elapsed before he had portrayed his own features, with the help of a mirror, so faithfully that the picture seemed to be alive. This he brought to the Sultan, who was so amazed thereat that he could imagine no other but that the painter had some divine spirit in his service; and if it had not been that the exercise of this art is forbidden to the Turks by their law, as we have said, that emperor would never have suffered Gentile to leave him. But, whether the Sultan feared that murmurs might arise, or was moved by some other cause, he one day commanded the attendance of the painter, and having caused him first to be thanked for the courtesy he had displayed, and highly extolled him as a man of wonderful ability, he finally bade him demand whatever favour he might desire as a parting token, which should be presented to him without fail. Gentile, "who was a modest and upright man, demanded no other thing than a letter of approval, by which the Sultan should recommend him to the most Serene Senate and most Illustrious Signoria of Venice, his native city. This was written as cordially as was possible, after which he was dismissed with the most honourable presents and with the dignity of knighthood. In addition to many privileges then conferred on Gentile by this monarch, and among the many gifts bestowed on him, was a chain of gold, made after the Turkish fashion, and equal in weight to 250 scudi, which was placed around his neck: this ornament is still in possession of his heirs at Venice.