– Gentile Bellini, Constantinople, 1480

Perhaps this fits in some Vasari-like

Apocrypha? Sultan Mehmet II,

They say, presented by Bellini with

An oil of John the Baptist’s severed head,

Repined: the painting wasn’t true to life –

A blunt critique Bellini hadn’t reckoned

On. So Mehmet ordered up a strike

One hopes was surgical (this may be myth):

A slave’s neck was presented to a knife,

And afterward, the slave was duly dead.

No mention if the great Bellini shook,

Told “this is how a severed head should look.”

Perhaps the captious Sultan meant no menace,

But Bellini soon returned to Venice.