Εικόνες του 15ου αιώνα στη Ζάκυνθο
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.40, 2001, pages 115-128
Issue:
Pages:
115-128
Parallel Title:
Fifteenth Century Icons in Zakynthos
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Articles
Abstract:
During the course of organizing the exhibition in honourof Academician Manolis Chatzidakis, in the ZakynthosMuseum in 1996, and the partial reorganizing of icons in thepermanent exhibition, some of the fifteenth century werepresented for the first time or others already on display andrecently published were redated.This article discusses four such icons, three of which areunknown in the bibliography.1. The Annunciation to the Virgin (0.63x0.93 m) has arichly architectural background that transfers the principlesof Palaeologan painting more faithfully than other examplesdated in the first half of the fifteenth century. Iconographically the movement of the angels is related to that in theOchrid icon dated in the fourteenth century, while stylistically it is assocated with examples of figures from iconsof c. 1400.2. St George the Dragon-Slayer, on foot (1.95x0.96 m), anicon overpainted in the seventeenth century which wasfound after cleaning to be an excellent work displaying closeaffinity with the icon in the treasury of the Patmos monastery, the icon in the Benaki Museum -which has beenattributed to the painter Angelos- and a leaf of a diptych inthe Latsi Collection, all works of the first half of the fifteenthcentury.3. The Virgin of the Passion (0.83x0.71 m) renders the familiar iconographie type elaborated by Cretan painters in thefifteenth century. Although badly damaged, the work displays close affinity with icons of the cycle of the art ofAndreas Ritzos and can be dated c. 1500.4. The Madre della Consolazione (0.60x0.45 m), althoughbadly damaged, is of exquisite art with iconographie detailsencountered in icons dated to the second half of or the latefifteenth century.These four icons dating from the fifteenth century increasethe appreciable total of works of this period in Zakynthos, towhich should be added those that were lost in the 1953earthquake and conflagration but are known from photographs or descriptions, as well as others from Zakynthianprivate collections that were sold in Athens (LoverdosCollection et al. ).It is well known that with the fall of Candia (mod. Herakleion) to the Ottomans in 1669, a large number of refugeesfled to the Ionian Islands, bringing their precious belongingswith them, and, as Manolis Chatzidakis perspicaciously observed, Zakynthos and Corfu in particular became 'the mostimportant repository of works of art of Crete'. However,neither in Corfu nor in the other Ionian Islands is such acorpus of fifteenth-century works encountered. A possibleexplanation of this fact lies in the historical circumstances inZakynthos, the arrival of refugees not only after the conquest of Crete but from the late fifteenth century onwards,the economic development from the sixteenth century onwards and the presence from that period of painters andpainting workshops on the island.
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