【Paintings in Proust】 Sultan Mehmed II, Gentile Bellini, 1480 (p.41)

布洛克是小說中敘事者的同學，同時也是一位知識啟蒙者，他打開了敘事者的眼界。
至於穆罕默德二世的畫像則是一幅「經典」畫作，當年 Gentile Bellini 從伊斯坦堡將東方畫風帶回到威尼斯，他能夠在文化衝突之下吸收異國養分並融合形塑自我的風格，確屬難能可貴，在讀過奧罕‧帕慕克的《我的名字叫紅》之後，這樣的想法更加篤定。
感覺上好像透過這幅畫，就足以窺見穆罕默德二世如何攻陷君士坦丁堡以及想像整個奧斯曼帝國的偉大。

【TEXT】
One Sunday, while I was reading in the garden, I was interrupted by Swann, who had come to call upon my parents.
“What are you reading? May I look? Why, it’s Bergotte! Who has been telling you about him?”
I replied that Bloch was responsible.
“Oh, yes, that boy I saw here once, who looks so like the Bellini portrait of Mahomet II. It’s an astonishing likeness; he has the same arched eyebrows and hooked nose and prominent cheekbones. When his beard comes he’ll be Mahomet himself. …
And Swann felt a very cordial sympathy with that Mahomet II whose portrait by Bellini he admired, who, on finding that he had fallen madly in love with one of his wives, stabbed her, in order, as his Venetian biographer artlessly relates, to recover his spiritual freedom. (Swann's Way)

　　有一個禮拜天，我正在園中讀書，被斯萬的來訪打斷。
　　“你讀什麼呢。能給我看看嗎？喲，貝戈特寫的？誰跟你提到他的作品的？”
　　我告訴他：是布洛克。
　　“啊，對了，我有一次在這裡見到過這個男孩子，他長得跟貝里尼畫的穆罕默德二世一模一樣。哦，像極了，同樣是弧形的眉毛，彎曲的鼻樑和隆起的顴骨。等他長出兩撇小鬍子上後，那就是穆罕默德二世了。……
斯萬對由貝里尼作肖像的穆罕默德二世深表同情，後者對他的一個後妃愛得發狂，就用匕首把她刺死，據為他作傳的威尼斯人不加掩飾地說，這是為了求得他心地的寧靜。
(p.108、384 追憶似水年華 I 在斯萬家那邊 聯經版 1992)