Amedeo Preziosi

The Bayezid mosque complex was built to the south of the Old Palace between 1506 and 1512 and was one of many architectural structures Sultan Bayezid II, son and successor of Sultan Mehmed II, had commissioned. This painting by Amadeo Preziosi, a Maltese artist who settled in Constantinople, depicts the courtyard of the mosque, before it partially gave way to an urban square, known today as the Beyazıt Square. The courtyard had gates on three sides and was surrounded by domed porticos supported on columns. The arches between these columns are painted in red and white stripes. There are windows in double rows at the outer walls of the courtyard and an ablution fountain with a pool in the center. The tomb of Sultan Bayezid is also in this courtyard. Amadeo Preziosi’s depictions of Constantinople and its inhabitants were published in a number of lithograph albums intended predominantly as souvenirs for visitors.