Byzantine painting

Se trata de una novedosa aproximación al mundo del artista medieval, cuya obra se debatía entre la autoría divina y la firma individual. Temas como la formación del artista, su estatus laico o eclesiástico, el recurso a los modelos o la importancia de la itinerancia en su aprendizaje son abordados con rigor en esta publicación. Asimismo, los distintos roles profesionales desempeñados en los talleres medievales nos permiten conocer mejor cómo se construía y decoraba una catedral en la Edad Media. En esta visión sociológica de la obra de arte no puede faltar el papel omnipotente de los patronos medievales, personajes normalmente relacionados con la realeza y el estamento eclesiástico, que en muchos casos son los verdaderos “autores” de estas empresas, en la que las mujeres tuvieron también un destacable protagonismo.
En el libro participan 20 autores procedentes  de diversas universidades e instituciones museísticas de toda Europa. La publicación es el resultado del proyecto de investigación “Artistas, patronos y público. Catalunya y el Mediterráneo. Siglos XI-XV” (MICINN HAR2011-23015.
Se trata de una novedosa aproximación al mundo del artista medieval, cuya obra se debatía entre la autoría divina y la firma individual. Temas como la formación del artista, su estatus laico o eclesiástico, el recurso a los modelos o la importancia de la itinerancia en su aprendizaje son abordados con rigor en esta publicación. Asimismo, los distintos roles profesionales desempeñados en los talleres medievales nos permiten conocer mejor cómo se construía y decoraba una catedral en la Edad Media. En esta visión sociológica de la obra de arte no puede faltar el papel omnipotente de los patronos medievales, personajes normalmente relacionados con la realeza y el estamento eclesiástico, que en muchos casos son los verdaderos “autores” de estas empresas, en la que las mujeres tuvieron también un destacable protagonismo.
En el libro participan 17 autores procedentes  de diversas universidades e instituciones museísticas de toda Europa. La publicación es el resultado de los proyectos de investigación “Artistas, patronos y público. Catalunya y el Mediterráneo. Siglos XI-XV”-Magistri Cataloniae (MICINN HAR2011-23015.) y "Movilidad y transferencia artística en el Mediterráneo Medieval (1187-1388). Artistas, objetos y modelos-Magistri Mediterranei (MICINN-HAR2015-63883-P)
http://editorialcirculorojo.com/entre-la-letra-y-el-pincel-el-artista-medieval-leyenda-identidad-y-estatus/

The most recent studies of the sketches drawn at the end of 12th century in the margins of a copy of John Chrysostom’s commentary on Genesis (Oxford, Magdalen College, ms. Gr. 3) has raised the controversial question of whether Byzantine model books might have been circulating both sides of the Mediterranean at this date. In my opinion, the Oxford manuscript is proof of the existence of patterns circulating through the workshops and the artist’s desire to practice drawing before painting. Some of these drawings present many similarities with the style and iconography of painters working in Holy Land, Sinai and Catalonia at that date or a little bit after. It allows us to reconsider as well the role played by Catalonia –a land open to the Mediterranean- in the making of the Mediterranean Art around 1200.

Avent le commencement des travaux de restaurations (dégagement des interventions et des couches des peintures tardives) les peintures de l’église de St. Nicolas de Rădăuți ont été très mal connues. Maintenant, en pleine déroulement de ces travaux, nous pouvons faire quelques observations sur le programme iconographique d’ici. Dans les registres inferieures, on rencontre une galerie de saints bienheureux, surtout les saints parents du désert, et des saints évêques en médaillons sur tout le périmètre des murs des nefs latérales. Une disposition unique, laquelle, avec le cycle des Conseils œcuméniques placées dans la partie d’ouest du registre médiane (aussi presque inattendue à ce espace), dénote la fonctionnalité de cette église comme cathédrale épiscopale. D’autres traits spécifiques de son programme iconographique s’explique par la structure architecturelle unique parmi les églises peintes de Moldavie de XVe – XVIe siècles. Jusqu’au moment om n’a pas trouves encore aucune trace des cycles des Douze faites et des Passion de Christ, tellement habituelle pour la décoration des nefs des églises Moldaves. Peut être que leur emplacement autrefois a été sur les archivoltes des arches qui unisse les piliers de séparation entre la nef centrales et celles latérales, ou sur les versants de la voute en berceau, espaces, aujourd’hui entièrement couvert par des couches tardives des peintures décoratives. Ce qu’on voit maintenant du registre médian, sont les peintures dans des niches formées par les intrados de arches des piliers mentionnés, ainsi que des tympans configure par elle. La fragmentation de l’espace peint, donne une sorte d’autonomie à la peinture de chaque niche.

The cult of St George in the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the most extraordinary
examples of cohabitation among different religious communities. For a long time, Greek Orthodox,
Latins, and Muslims shared shrines dedicated to the Cappadocian warrior in very different places.
This phenomenon touches on two aspects of the cult—the intercultural and the transcultural—that
should be considered separately. My paper mainly focuses on the cross‐cultural value of the cult
and the iconography of St George in continental and insular Greece during the Latinokratia (13th–
14th centuries). In this area, we face the same phenomenon with similar contradictions to those
found in Turkey or Palestine, where George was shared by different communities, but could also
serve to strengthen the identity of a particular ethnic group. Venetians, Franks, Genoese, Catalans,
and Greeks (Ῥωμαῖοι) sought the protection of St George, and in this process, they tried to
physically or figuratively appropriate his image. However, in order to gain a better understanding
of the peculiar situation in Frankish‐Palaiologian Greece, it is necessary first to analyze the use of
images of St George by the Palaiologian dynasty (1261–1453). Later, we will consider this in relation
to the cult and the depiction of the saint on a series of artworks and monuments in Frankish and
Catalan Greece. The latter enables us to more precisely interrogate the significance of the former
cult of St George in the Crown of Aragon and assess the consequences of the rulership of Greece for
the flourishing of his iconography in Late Gothic art.

Considerations on the beginnings of the School of ecclesiastic painting of the Romanian Patriarchy

For the Romanian people the Orthodox Church represents not only a connection to God, but also the source of its culture, as the numerous churches and monasteries were always true schools of art. During modern times, that is after World War I, when the Romanian provinces that previously had been unjustly separated, were added to the nation’s body, the Romanian Orthodox Church became a Patriarchy (1925). In this context of Greater Romania there was a need for a system of rules concerning the way in which churches were painted, with the intent of following of old Byzantine canons.
Patriarch Miron Cristea is credited with bringing this issue before Parliament, and later Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu established a school of painting, with its own teaching body and headquarters. The one that would make this initiative stand out was the Patriarch Justinian Marina. In spite of the full-blown sovietization to which Romania was subjected during that period, he hired highly skilled painters and professors in order to train and support the graduates of the Academia de Arte Frumoase which wanted to paint churches, but did not know the rules of Byzantine painting. It is important to mention that the Church recovered skilled painters that it certified to undertake works of painting churches, either during works of restoration, or for new works of painting.
The school of painting of the Romanian Patriarchy organized exhibitions of icons - some which were offered by Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu to King Michael I -, used icon-drawings to decorate prayer books and organized contests in order to reward talented painters.
The school’s professors used to be highly regarded during the inter-war period for their artistic repertoire, but had been ostracized by the communist regime. Some of them also became professors at the Academia de Arte Frumoase, which was a public college.
It is remarkable that, during the challenging times when Justinian Marina was Patriarch, 4041 churches were re-painted by graduates of the Patriarchy’s school of painting. This school trained not only painters, but also artists working with enamel, mosaic, sculptors etc.
In this study we are using previously unpublished documents that show the school’s programme, the names of the professors and also the lists of the graduates, among whom many important names can be recognized.
The notes to this study include the professors’ biographies, some of which have not been published previously.
In the annexes we included important information about the way in which the certification exams for ecclesiastic painters were organized, lists of names of the professors and graduates and a statistic of the number of graduates of different techniques: fresco painting, oil painting, mosaic works etc.

Catalan Panel Painting of the late 12th century is characterised by a marked Byzantine imprint. Although a number of scholars have argued that this Byzantine influence was indirect, and suggested that the intermediaries were Anglo-Norman miniatures (especially in the case of the altar frontal from Santa Maria d'Avià), others have preferred the notion of direct contact between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean as a result of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 and the capture of Constantinople by a Crusader army in 1204. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the similarities between Catalan Panel Painting (notably the altar frontals from Avià, Baltarga and Oreilla) and Cypriot and Komnenian art -  in terms of their technique, colour and iconographic models. In this respect, the drawings made in Cyprus between 1183 and 1192 in Oxford, Magdalen College, MS. Gr. 3, are both proof of the existence of potentially portable workshop models, and the desire of artists to practice drawing before painting.

Thèse de doctorat présentée par Anestis VASILAKERIS Sous la direction du professeur M. Claude LEPAGE Devant un jury composé des professeurs Mme Théano CHATZIDAKIS Mme Catherine JOLIVET-LEVY M. Claude LEPAGE M. Thomas S. MATHEWS P a r i s , n o v e m b r e  2 0 0 7

During the course of conservation work on the wall-paintings in the Protaton Church on Mount Athos a number of letters were found that can form the name 'Eutychios' or 'Eutychiou', the name of one of the two painters who decorated the Peribleptos Church in Ohrid. This discovery has overturned the findings of previous research and also poses new questions. The answers to these questions constitute the aim of the present article. More specifically, the wall-paintings in the Protaton are attributed to two painters, Michael Astrapas and the painter of the Chapel of St. Euthymios in Thessalonica, and are dated to between 1309 and 1311/1312. Since there are many problematic points in Astrapas' artistic development, this article reexamines certain ensembles of wall-paintings, and particularly that of the Bogo-rodica Ljeviška Church, as a key to interpreting and solving the problem of 'Michael Astrapas'.

The text concerns the cave church of Panagia Eleousa on the shore of the Great Prespa lake. The study focuses on two parameters: a. the written epigraphic material, which is connected to the history of the monument and its donors, and b. the unusual external and internal decoration with symbolic themes and motifs with protective and apotropaic connotation.

During the last two centuries before the Renaissance of the arts in Italy in the 15th century, different waves of classical trends marked the artistic creation of both Byzantine and western worlds. Between 1220 and 1260 in particular, a parallel development of the revival of ancient forms is noted in both of the above-mentioned traditions. Various artistic expressions later developed independently.
The various artistic tendencies of the period under discussion are well known by the critics but usually Byzantine and Western cultures are studied separately. In the present paper, it is interesting to expose some aspects of the revivals of ancient art in both worlds, namely Byzantine and Latin, during the 13th and 14th centuries. In this way, it will, firstly, be possible to establish a more appropriate method for examining the origin of this extensive wave of ancient revival that took place during the 13th century. Secondly, it is useful to note how this Proto-Renaissance gave way under the weight of more conservative Byzantine forms in 14th century Byzantine painting and, thirdly, it is instructive to show an interpretation of how, in the West, namely in Italy, the classical forms developed unimpeded from 1260 onwards so that they eventually continued into the great Renaissance.
For this purpose, I shall first briefly expose the historical and political situation of the Byzantine Empire vis-à-vis the European world during the period under consideration. I shall then touch upon the artistic phenomena, pointing out the most characteristic cases.

It is about the iconographic program of a hermitage in a strategic passage northwards to Thessaloniki, which is based on the depiction of the most venerated warrior saints. The proposed interpretation is connected to the ideology of the protection of the Byzantine army by the warrior saints.

The article investigates early fifteenth-century religious paintings from Crete whose style and iconography betray a studied amalgamation of Palaiologan and Italian elements. In these works of pronounced hybrid character, multifarious iconographic subjects are conveyed with surprising stylistic diversity. The author investigates the motives behind the patrons’ choices and identifies the theological and devotional needs that shaped the mixed character of these paintings. The careful stitching together of elements from two different artistic and religious traditions becomes meaningful when examined against the complex historical background of Venetian Crete, especially at a time of intense debate over the burning issue of the union of the churches. Aspects of that debate, which divided the Orthodox population, can be discerned in religious paintings from other parts of the Byzantine world. In the Venetian colony of Crete however, this phenomenon takes on a distinctive local flavor, determined by the long term coexistence, struggles and interaction between the two communities on the island.

Albania at the crossroads of cultural influences from Medieval West and Byzantium: a few testimonies from mural painting (15th-16th c.) (in Albanian).

The paper examines the interaction of two cultures, the Byzantine-Greek Orthodox, and the Latin-Catholic one, in the Late Medieval and Early Ottoman Albania, focusing to a number of wall-paintings in North and South Albania.

The article refers, namely, to the murals of the churches of Balldren and Plana, near Lezha (15th and 16th c.), as well as to those of the cave Church of St George in Dhivri, near Saranda (13th and 15th c.). The above mentioned frescoes represent three aspects of fresco decoration of churches in Albania dating from the late Medieval - early Ottoman period and prove the co-existence and sometimes even the fusion of two different Christian traditions. During the 14th-15th centuries, before the Ottoman conquest, that aesthetical amalgam between Byzantine and Latin Christianity is expressed through the eclectic Byzantine-Gothic mural paintings in Catholic churches in N. Albania. One of the very few surviving examples are to be found in the church of  Shën e Prende (Sainte Paraskeve), in the village of Balldren, near Lezha. The gable of the east wall has been decorated with a Majestas Domini; some fragments of a representation of Christ between (probably) prophets are visible on the apse, as well as three bishops on the lower part of the semicircular wall.
The Post-Byzantine frescoes existing in a couple of Catholic churches in  N. Albania represent the second aspect of the aforesaid cultural fusion. These are namely 1. the second layer of decoration on the apse and the east wall of the above-mentioned church of Balldren (the iconographic program include the Deisis, the Last Supper, and isolated figures), and 2. the mural paintings (archangel Michael and saint George) on the west facade of the church of Shën Veneranda, in the village of Planë. Although different in style, both ensembles date from the 16th century and are a work of painters coming from an Orthodox milieu.
The third aspect of the co-existence of the aforesaid religious and cultural traditions concerns the very unusual depiction of St. Martin (either the Roman Pope and Confessor or the Bishop of Tours) on the apse of an Orthodox cave church dedicated to St. George, near the village of Dhivër, S. Albania. It belongs to the second phase of mural painting that may date from the mid- or late 15th c. The figure of St. Martin would fit the customary use of the latin name “Martin” among the Orthodox Albanians, either those living in S. Albania or the migrants in Greece (Arbërore, Arvanites), a fact attested in sources since the 15th c.

Lucrarea este compusă din două compartimente principale: studiul ştiinţific şi ediţia integrală color a miniaturilor Tetraevanghelului de la Elizavetgrad. Studiul este constituit din următoarele compartimente: Introducere: prezentarea şi argumentarea demersului; Capitolul I : “Odiseia” manuscriselor grupului Parisinus Graecus 74: istoria circulaţiei manuscriselor grupului respectiv; Capitolul II: Istoricul cercetării manuscriselor: istoriografia cercetării manuscriselor din grupul Paris. gr. 74, precum şi evoluţia stemelor acestui grup, fiind evidenţiate opiniile anterioare, în care, fără cercetarea nemijlocită a codicelui de la Elizavetgrad, s-a intuit poziţia sa corectă în stema manuscriselor grupului. Materialul din acest capitol a fost divizat cronologic în două paragrafe: §1. De la origini până la prima conflagraţie mondială; §2. De la perioada interbelică până în zilele noastre; Capitolul III: Descrierea manuscriselor: materialul în acest capitol prezintă descrierea arheografică a manuscriselor şi este ordonat după cum urmează: §1. Manuscrisul bizantin (Paris. gr. 74); §2. Codicele georgiene (Tetraevanghelele de la Gelathi, Djuruci, Mokvi); §3. Tetraevanghelul bulgar (Curzon 153); §4. Manuscrisele româneşti (Suceviţa 23, Suceviţa 24, Lvov 193/IV); §5. Tetraevanghelul de la Elizavetgrad; Capitolul IV: Frontispiciile codicelor grupului Paris. gr. 74: frontispiciile cu imagini iconografice de la începutul celor patru evanghelii, formează un sistem ornamental şi iconografic unic, fapt ce indică necesitatea de a le studia în totalitate. În acest capitol, materialul este repartizat în două paragrafe: § 1. Structurile ornamentale: se atrage o atenţie deosebită acestui sistem ornamental, care pătrunde în arta medievală românească datorită manuscriselor grupului respectiv şi, §2. Iconografia: o problemă controversată în istoriografie ; Capitolul V: Studiul iconografic al miniaturilor codicelui de la Elizavetgrad: conţine analiza comparativă a iconografiei miniaturilor tetraevanghelului de la Elizavetgrad în raport cu sistemele iconografice ale celorlalte codice din grupul respectiv; iar într-un paragraf special este cercetată –  Poziţia stilistică a miniaturilor Tetraevanghelului de la Elizavetgrad: cercetarea evocă maniere distincte în executarea miniaturilor din acest Tetraevanghel şi momentele de tangenţă stilistică cu miniaturile codicelui Suceviţa 24 şi a altor manuscrise, produse artistice ale şcolii de la Dragomirna; Capitolul VI: Ecourile miniaturilor manuscriselor grupului Paris. gr. 74 în arta Moldovei medievale: §1. Manuscrise din afara grupului: se demonstrează dependenţa iconografică faţă de miniaturile acestui grup de codice a unui Tetraevanghel, care până acum nu a fost cercetat în acest context (manuscrisul moldovenesc de la Varşovia, din epoca lui Ştefan cel Mare), precum şi interferenţe stilistice în cazul altor manuscrise moldoveneşti din al treilea pătrar al sec. XVI; §2. Pictura murală şi icoanele: sunt prezentate ecourile iconografice al miniaturilor grupului Paris. gr. 74 în monumentele de pictură murală din Moldova medievală, care se divizează în două grupe: 1) Voroneţ, Bălineşti, Dobrovăţ (ultimele decenii ale sec. XV - prima treime a sec. XVI), 2) Suceviţa, Dragomirna (sf. sec. XVI – înc. sec. XVII); Capitolul VII: Consideraţii privind atribuţia Tetraevanghelului de la Elizavetgrad şi poziţia sa în stema manuscriselor grupului Paris. gr. 74: se argumentează poziţia miniaturilor codicelui de la Elizavetgrad în contextul genezei şcolii de miniaturistică moldovenească a lui Anastasie Crimca, datarea şi atribuţia prezumtivă a acestui manuscris, precum şi amplasamentul său în stema codicelor grupului Paris. gr. 74; Încheiere: concluziile principale; Lista miniaturilor: este alcătuită în limbile română, engleză şi rusă; Bibliografia: cuprinde exhaustiv toată literatura, în care sunt abordate manuscrisele grupului respectiv, celelalte titluri fiind prezentate în note; Indice general şi Anexele, unde sunt plasate reproducerile color ale celor 353 de miniaturi din cuprinsul Tetraevanghelului de la Elizavetgrad, precum şi elementele ornamentale (frontispicii, iniţiale, viniete). În cuprinsul lucrării sunt incluse şi rezumate desfăşurate în limbile engleză şi rusă.

This paper offers the first extended analysis of the icon of the Virgin of Tenderness from the Gallery of Palazzo Bellomo in Syracuse. It provides a detailed description of the icon and an analysis of its iconographical formula. Having determined its closest stylistic relatives, the author dates the icon to the last decades of the 14th century and ascribes it to an anonymous Constantinopolitan artist. Special attention is given to the distinctive belt with straps girdling the tunic of the Christ-Child. This belt, which also appears in many icons of the Virgin of Tenderness as well as in some other iconographical themes that include a representation of Christ Emmanuel (Circumcision, Hypapante, Christ Anapeson) is identified as the girdle worn by Jewish high priests (abnet), which was used to allude to Christ as the high priest of the Heavenly Tabernacle, the sacrifice he would make and the salvation of mankind that his sacrifice would bring.

During the Middle Ages, the southern and south-western areas of the Voivodat of Transylvania and Kingdom of Hungary, respectively, represented a border region where several ethnic and confessional groups coexisted, each of them bringing into play its own cultural and religious tradition. Under Latin rule, Orthodox Romanians (Vlachs) lived together with Catholic Hungarians, Szeklers, and Saxons, their long-lasting convivencia generating frequent encounters with the culture of the Other, which left deep traces in the religious art of both confessional groups. Orthodox patrons had an entangled relationship with Western art, resorting often to masons active on the neighboring, Catholic sites, which created for them religious edifices with Western appearance. Although Orthodox patrons entrusted their churches’ decoration mainly to painters of Byzantine tradition, these artists were highly receptive to themes and motifs typical for Western/Catholic iconography. Additionally, Orthodox patrons resorted sometimes to Western workshops for decorating their religious edifices with wall paintings. The article focuses on two case studies – the mural decoration of the sanctuaries of the neighboring Orthodox churches in Strei (Hunyad County, Voivodat of Transylvania) and Hălmagiu (Arad County, Kingdom of Hungary), which was executed during the first half of the 14th century and  between the late-14th and early-15th century, respectively. When decorating the altar space of these Eastern-rite churches, the two Western workshops needed to adapt continuously their iconographic and formal vocabulary, in order to respond to the requirements of the particular worship space they decorated or to their commissioners’ devotional sensibility and demands. This led to frequent phenomena of hybridization in the field of religious art, which escape the usual categories that history of medieval art operates with and which challenge traditional, art-historical labeling (e.g., Byzantine/Eastern versus Western or Orthodox versus Catholic).

През Средновековието южните и югозападните части на Войводство Трансилвания и Унгарското кралство са райони, в които съжителстват по няколко конфесионални групи, всяка от които има своя културна и религиозна традиция. При управлението на латините православните румънци (власи) живеели с унгарци католици, шеклери и саксонци, като тяхната conviventia генерира чести взаимодействия, а това оставя дълбоки следи в религиозното изкуство и на двете религиозни групи. Православните дарители имат сложна релация със западното изкуство, възлагайки често поръчки на строители, които работят в съседните земи с католически градове, като в резултат на това създават религиозни сгради със „западен“ облик. Въпреки че православните ктитори поверяват украсата на своите църкви на майстори, работещи във византийската традиция, тези художници проявяват висока степен на възприемчивост по отношение на сюжети и мотиви, характерни за западната/католическата иконография. А може да се добави, че православните дарители предоставят на западни ателиета да украсят техните религиозни сгради със стенописи.
Тази статия се фокусира върху два характерни казуса – стенописната украса на православните храмове в съседни области: в Стрей (област Хуняд, Войводство Трансилвания) и в Хълмаджю (област Заранд, Кралство Унгария), изпълнени респективно през първата половина на XIV в. и между късния XIV в. и ранния XV в. При декорирането на олтарното пространство на тези православни храмове двете западни ателиета се принуждават последователно да пригодят своя иконографски и формален изказ, за да отговорят на изискванията на това специфично култово пространство или на чувствителността на поръчителите. Това „нагаждане“ често води до хибридизация на явленията в областта на църковното изкуство, което бяга от обичайните си категории, и представлява предизвикателство за традиционното изкуствоведско етикетиране на познатите ни опозиции: византийско/източно versus западно или православно versus католическо.