The invented image of Marco Polo: a 700-year-old fake

Marking 700 years since Marco Polo's death (1324), a historian reveals that all known portraits of the Venetian traveler are pure fantasy, with no contemporary documentation of his appearance. The iconic bearded image derives from a 1868 mosaic in Genoa's Palazzo Doria-Tursi by Enrico Podio, reproduced in Sir Henry Yule's 1871 biography. Earlier invented portraits include a 1812 engraving by Gaetano Bonatti after Teodoro Matteini, a 1847 medal by Antonio Fabris, and a 1863 bust by Augusto Gamba. The 1982 1,000 lire banknote used a 16th-century painting attributed to Giorgione at Galleria Doria Pamphili. The article traces the iconographic tradition from medieval French miniatures to the 1477 Nuremberg edition, arguing that the Genoese mosaic won due to accessibility, not accuracy.