04 Works, Today, May 29th is Constantine XI Palaiologos' day, his story in Paintings #149

Constantine XI Paleologus (Last Eastern Emperor) (1405-1453)

"Elate na thn paretai (come and take her). - Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Paleologus to the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II upon his demand to surrender Constantinople.

Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos, Latinized as Palaeologus (8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last reigning Byzantine emperor, ruling as a member of the Palaiologos dynasty from 1449 to his death in battle at the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

Constantinople, the capital and founding city of the Byzantine Empire, c. 1422 CE by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti. 

This is the oldest surviving map of the city and the only one that predates the Turkish conquest of the city in 1453 CE.

Cristoforo Buondelmonti (1386 - c. 1430) was an Italian Franciscan priest and traveler, and a pioneer in promoting first-hand knowledge of Greece and its antiquities throughout the Western world.

He left his native city of Florence, in Tuscany, around 1414 C.E. in order to travel, mainly in the Aegean Islands. He visited Constantinople in the 1420s. He is the author of two historical-geographic works: the Descriptio insulae Cretae (1417, in collaboration with Niccolò Niccoli) and the Liber insularum Archipelagi (1420). These two books are a combination of geographical information and contemporary charts and sailing directions. The last one contains the oldest surviving map of Constantinople, and the only one which antedates the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453.


While travelling over the island of Andros, he bought a Greek manuscript and brought it back with him to Italy. This was the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, which played a considerable role both in humanistic thinking and in art. More on Cristoforo Buondelmonti

Previously serving as regent for his brother John VIII 1437–1439, Constantine succeeded his brother, who died in Constantinople of natural causes in 1448, as Emperor following a short dispute with his younger brother Demetrios. Despite the mounting difficulties of his reign, contemporary sources generally speak respectfully of Constantine. 

Gentile Bellini, (1429–1507)

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481 CE)

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and conqueror of Constantinople in 1453 CE.

The National Gallery, London.

Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and at least in the early part of his career was more highly regarded than his younger brother Giovanni Bellini, the reverse of the case today. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice, and as well as his portraits he painted a number of very large subjects with multitudes of figures, especially for the Scuole Grandi of Venice, wealthy confraternities that were very important in Venetian patrician social life.


In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of the Orientalist tradition in Western painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe. More on Gentile Bellini 

Constantine would rule for just over 4 years, his reign culminating in the Ottoman siege and conquest of Constantinople, the imperial capital, under Sultan Mehmed II. Constantine did what he could to organize the defenses of the city, stockpiling food and repairing the old Theodosian walls, but the reduced domain of the Empire and the poor economy meant that organizing a force large enough for the defense of the city was impossible. 

Theophilos Hatzimihail, (1870–1934) 

Konstantinos Paleologos in battle, 1453, c. 1932

Battle inside the city, Constantine is visible on a white horse

Theofilos Museum, Lesvos, Greece

Theophilos Hatzimihail born c. 1870, Vareia; died in Vareia, Greece, 24 March 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a major folk painter of modern Greek art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklife and history.

His life was very hard, partially because people made fun of him since he often wore the traditional Greek kilt, the fustanella, in public. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper.

He stayed in Smyrna for a few years before he settled in the city of Volos in about 1897, searching for occasional work and painting in houses and shops of the area. Many of his murals exist today. As well as painting, he was also involved in organizing popular theatrical acts for national ceremonies.

In 1927 he returned to Mytilene, despite the mockery of the people, he continued to draw, painting many murals in villages for little payment, usually for a plate of food and a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either due to natural aging or from damage by the owners.

In Mytilene, the renowned art critic and publisher Stratis Eletheriadis (Tériade), who lived in Paris, discovered Theophilos and brought him a great deal of recognition and also international publicity, though posthumous. With Tériade's funding in 1964 the Museum of Theophilos was constructed in Vareia, Lesbos.


Theophilos died in March 1934, on the eve of the Annunciation, perhaps from food poisoning. One year later, his works were exhibited in the Louvre as a sample of a genuine folk painter of Greece. More on Theophilos Hatzimihail

Constantine led the defending forces, numbering approximately 7,000, against an Ottoman army numbering around 10 times that and died in the ensuing fighting.

Following his death, he became a legendary figure in Greek folklore as the Marmaromenos Vasilias, the "Marble Emperor" who would awaken and recover the Empire and Constantinople from the Ottomans. His death marked the end of the Roman Empire. It had continued in the East as the Byzantine Empire for 977 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The Empire had begun with the reign of Augustus in 27 BC, 1,479 years previously. More on Constantine XI Palaiologos

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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