Dr. Elizabeth Rodini Presents the 2024 Rava Memorial Lecture at Washington University

​"Between Venice and the World: Gentile Bellini's Portrait of Sultan Mehmet II and Matters of Italianità"

When: Wednesday, February 28, 2024
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Where: Washington University in St Louis. Reception will be held at 4:00 pm in Goldberg Formal Lounge. Lecture to follow at 5:00 pm in Danforth University Center (DUC) 276. 

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Dr. Elizabeth Rodini (Ph.D., University of Chicago) most recently served as Andrew Heiskell Arts Director and Interim Director of the American Academy in Rome. Previously, she was Teaching Professor in History of Art and founding Director of the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University, where she taught for 15 years. Dr. Rodini's art historical work centers on cross-cultural encounters in the early modern period, with a particular interest in mobility, recontextualization, and the reuse of objects between Venice and the Islamic world. Her forthcoming book, On the Street of the Hidden Shops: A Metaphoric Archaeology of Rome, tells the deep history of a single city block through the stories of those who lived and worked there across 2,000 years.

Painted in 1480 at the Ottoman court in Istanbul, Gentile Bellini's famed portrait of Sultan Mehmed II has had a rich afterlife, stretching across three continents and entangled with issues ranging from authenticity to historical memory to the formulation of national patrimony. Through a close examination of the portrait and its history, including questions of style, provenance, condition, and display, we will consider different perspectives on its italianità and the ways in which that identity shifts while remaining firm.

Reception will be held at 4:00 pm in Goldberg Formal Lounge. Lecture to follow at 5:00 pm in Danforth University Center (DUC) 276. 

The Rava Memorial Lecture is funded by the family of Paul and Silvia Rava and sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.