Titian: Portrait of Suleiman the Magnificent (1530)

(Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria)

A painting by the Italian artist Tiziano Vecelli (1488/90– 1576), also known as Titian. Suleiman I (1494 – 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent and Suleiman the Lawgiver, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his rule, the Ottoman Empire reached its apex of economic, military and political power. He managed to conquer large parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe before his armies were checked at the siege of Vienna in 1529. He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the "Golden" age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary and architectural development. After the death of Suleiman I, the empire began to experience significant political, institutional, and economic changes - a period known as the 'Transformation of the Ottoman Empire'. Painting from 1530s.