A Byzantine Christmas

An Annunciation, second half of 16th C.

The Benaki Museum, in Athens, houses an immense personal collection of antiquities and Byzantine art, especially icons from the so-called Cretan School. Although I'm very interested in Byzantine art, I'm starting from a point of knowing very little about it -- it's our trips to Rome, Sicily, and now Greece that have made me want to learn. I apologize that the photographs aren't better - the combination of the lighting in the galleries and gold leaf on the icons made it really hard to avoid reflections and shine.

Annunciation, by Emmanuel Tzanfornaris, late 16th-early 17th C.

For today, though, I'm just going to post some of the icon paintings we saw at the Benaki that had an Advent or Christmas theme, and include a paraphrase of online articles about what this Cretan School actually was.

The Volpi Nativity, 1st quarter of 15th C. The baby is laid in a strange coffin-like box with a reclining Virgin and pensive Joseph -- but who are all those other characters?

Virgin and Child Enthroned, by Andreas Ritzos, one of the most famous Cretan painters. Second half of 15th C.

In Greece we repeatedly encountered bitter accounts and evidence of the destruction of Christian art, architecture, and artifacts that occurred when the cities of the Byzantine empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. After Constantinople was taken over by the Turks in 1453, a number of Byzantine scholars and artists fled, especially to Venice.

"The émigrés were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians. They reintroduced the teaching of the Greek language to their western counterparts, and brought with them Classical texts that were printed on the first printing presses for Greek books in Venice in 1499. Orthodox Christians in other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean gave money to endow monasteries and allow them to continue their work. One major example was on the island of Crete, which was occupied by the Venetians from 1204 until 1669, and was one of the last Greek islands to have fallen to the Ottoman Turks. The Cretan School of icon-writing became the predominant force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and helped to supply the demand for Byzantine icons throughout Europe. The Cretan artists developed a particular style of painting under the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions and movements; the most famous product of the school, El Greco, was the most successful of the many artists who tried to build a career in Western Europe, and also the one who left the Byzantine style farthest behind him in his later career.

By the late 15th century, Cretan artists had established a distinct icon-painting style, distinguished by "the precise outlines, the modelling of the flesh with dark brown underpaint and dense tiny highlights on the cheeks of the faces, the bright colours in the garments, the geometrical treatment of the drapery, and, finally the balanced articulation of the composition", "sharp contours, slim silhouettes, linear draperies and restrained movements". (Wikipedia:the Cretan School, and Patrick Comerford, The Cretan School of Icons and its Contribution to Western Art.)

With these beautiful, enigmatic images, I want to wish a Merry Christmas to all of you!

Adoration of the Magi, attributed to Ioannis Permeniatus, first half of 16th century

Comments

[Rachel Barenblat]

These are beautiful. Thank you, Beth. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[Vivian]

Re your question "who are those others"....lower left is a nurse washing baby Jesus cf https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/4437/

[Roderick Robinson]

'tis Christmas Day but not officially. Our house still slumbereth. You'll be off singing in several hours' time and I envy you that. Making a tuneful noise to some purpose. My best wishes for your friendship and your encouragement.

[Jean]

These are so beautiful! The slightly diffused quality of your photos is only appropriate, I feel, to such old, mysterious and lovely works. Warmest wishes, today and every day.

[Natalie]

Fabulous images, especially the top three! Byzantine icons, the earlier the better, are among my most cherished forms of art. On my bookshelves are several mega-size books with terrific reproductions - must share them with you one day. Very best Christmas wishes to you and Jon.

[Dale Favier]

Wow. I've never seen any of these: thank you, Beth!

And merry Christmas.

[Beth]

Thank you so much, Rachel!

Vivian: Oh, now this is interesting. You're referring to a different but extremely similar painting. I don't know enough about icon-writing to know how strict the rules were, or are, and how this affected each school of painting. To me it sees like they are very strict. Here we've got an almost identical Madonna and baby, with the cow and horse, and the rocks, but the other figures are somewhat different and in different positions. I need to learn more. And yes, that's clearly a nurse.

Thank you, Robbie! I am grateful for you and your friendship too, and your dedication to music. I sang on Sunday and last night, but not today, although the choir was doing an 8-part Praetorius Mass. I never sing on Christmas Day, in deference to my husband who says "I love it but enough is enough!" - and I think he is right in this case. But I hope I'll be able to keep at it for many years to come -- and you too!

Jean, all the best to you for today and 2019. In spite of the idiocy and awfulness of the political world, I'm so grateful for your friendship and the beauty we manage to share. It really helps sustain me in such trying times, and remind me that humans have always had their good side, too. I love the paintings you share; they're a little point of stillness in each day.

I'd love to see those books, Natalie! There was one icon in particular, of St Thomas, that just completely stopped me in my tracks - so modern, in a way, and yet ancient. I couldn't photograph it well at all. All the best to you for a Happy Christmas and a peaceful, healthy, creative 2019. We all do have each other and I am so grateful for that.

Thanks, Dale! I'm still visually overloaded with the beautiful images we saw in Greece; I think when each one is so detailed and focused it's hard to absorb them all at one time, and it helps to go back and look at them carefully -- which is, I guess, what icon-viewing is supposed to be about. I'll be posting some others as time goes on. Greece was, to say the least, an intense experience for me! All my best for a Merry Christmas for you and Martha, and peaceful hearts in 2019. I appreciated your last post and share many of those same feelings. We will do what we can...and cope with all of it as best we can too. I'm grateful for these longterm friendships.

[Peter]

All of those expressionless faces somehow work for me. Merry Christmas, Beth.

[Blork]

It always cracks me up that Byzantine children are pictured as scaled-down adults, as if the artist just grabbed a handle in Photoshop and scaled the characters directly. In other words, the proportions are all wrong; children (real ones) have disproportionately large heads as compared to adults. Didn't the Byzantines notice that? Did they even look at their children? :-)

And merry Christmas!