Page 68 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes
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Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
All of the abovementioned factors and developments led to a formation of a charac- teristic Byzantine style of painting in Cyprus during the 15th and 16th century.74 It is also worth mentioning that, although late, the influence of Palaiologan painting was indeed felt in Cyprus, and this is mostly evident in the not so well preserved frescoes in St Par- askevi Geroskipou, in those in Panagia Katholiki (which are preserved in fragments), as well as in those in Palaia Egkleistra in Kouklia (completed approximately after 1442).75
In regards to Crete, one must bear in mind that from 1204 until the Ottoman invasion in 1669, Crete was under Venetian rule. Similarly to Cyprus, until the mid 16th century, in Crete we observe a continuation of the tradition of fresco painting of a somewhat pro- vincial but also archaic character. Nevertheless, in the 14th and 15th century the painters of Crete did come into close contact with various artistic currents coming from big Byz- antine centres.76 This contact was likely made possible due to the fact that painters from wider Greece were seeking refuge in Crete.77 For example, in the first half of the 15th century, painters Nikolaos Filanthropinos, Emmanuel Ouranos, Angelos Apokaukos, Al- eksios Apokaukos, Andronikos Sinadinos, as well as others, arrived in Crete.78 After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the number of painters who found refuge in Crete had of course increased.79
Although in the area of fresco painting there were sporadic influences of Italian mo- tifs and certain iconographical elements, which were caused by the presence of the Lat- in culture, these influences were weaker than elsewhere in the Latin-ruled Greece at the time, and they did not greatly affect the Byzantine style. On the contrary, the Cretan frescoes of the mid 15th century manifest aesthetic connections to their more or less con- temporary counterparts in Mistra – primarily the frescoes of Pantanassa (1430), but also those in Perivleptos (which approximately date between 1350 and 1375).80
74 Ibid., 67.
75 Ibid., 64.
76 Manolis Chatzidakis, “Contribution à l’étude de la peinture post-byzantine, 1453–1953. Le cinq-centième anniver-
saire de la prise de Constantinople,” L’Hellénisme Contemporain (1953): 11. See also:
Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Σχέσεις ανάμεσα στη ζωγραφική της Μακεδονίας και της Κρήτης τον 14ο αιώνα. Αθήνα: ΙΧ
CIEB, τ. Ι ́. (1955): 136–148.
77 Μίλτος Γαρίδης, Μεταβυζαντινή Ζωγραφική (1450–1600). Η εντοίχια ζωγραφική μετά την πτώση του Βυζαντίου στον
Ορθόδοξο κόσμο και στις χώρες υπό ξένη κυριαρχία. Μετάφραση: Αγγελική Γαρίδη (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κ. Σπανός, «Βιβλι- οπωλείο των βιβλιοφίλων», 2007), 69.
78 Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Ύστερη Βυζαντινή Τέχνη (1204–1453), στον τόμο: Iστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, τομ. Θ, Αθήνα 1979, 421.
79 Μίλτος Γαρίδης, Μεταβυζαντινή Ζωγραφική (1450–1600). Η εντοίχια ζωγραφική μετά την πτώση του Βυζαντίου στον Ορθόδοξο κόσμο και στις χώρες υπό ξένη κυριαρχία. Μετάφραση: Αγγελική Γαρίδη (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κ. Σπανός, «Βιβλι- οπωλείο των βιβλιοφίλων», 2007), 69.
80 Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Ύστερη Βυζαντινή Τέχνη (1204–1453), στον τόμο: Iστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, τομ. Θ, Αθήνα 1979, 421.
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