Beautiful portrait of the sultan, pictured in profile, with a long pointed beard, a richly ornate cloak and a big rounded turban. The inscription in the upper left side identifies him as Baiazetes I. Bayezid I was the fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1306-1403), son of Murad I; he rose to power in 1389, and became known with the nickname of Yildirim (The Thunderbolt). He expanded the Ottoman domain through the Balkans and Anatolia and defeated the crusaders, but was in turn defeated in 1402 at the battle of Ankara by the armies of Timur, and died in captivity. This painting displays close similarities with another painting of the same subject, held in the Uffizi in Florence, and part of the Giovio collection started in 1552 by order of Cosimo I de’ Medici, who charged the painter Cristofano dell’Altissimo with copying the portraits of the Galleria Universale degli Uomini of Paolo Giovo, bishop of Como, held in his villa in Borgovico. There the Florentine painter painted in 1562 the portrait now in the Uffizi (Acc. No. 1890-3053 published in Ottoman Splendour in Florentine Collection, catalogue of the exhibition at the Sakip Sabanci Muzesi of Istanbul, 2004, pp. 98-99). A portrait of the same subject, school of Veronese, has been recently sold by Sotheby’s London, Arts of the Islamic World, October 19, 2016, lot 294. Contact the Head of Department or ask for a condition report in order to continue reading. With frame: 80x60 cm Provenance: Private Collection, Milan.