Page 69 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter I
In the second part of the 15th century and thereafter there was a gradual decrease of the number of churches being decorated with frescoes in Crete81 and an increase in the production of portable icons. It can be said that the painters of this period abandoned fresco painting and focused on the painting of portable icons. It is mainly to these icon painters that the gradual formation of the Cretan school of painting, which blossomed in the 15th and 16th century, is owed.82 Also, towards the end of the 15th century, icon pro- duction in Crete was no longer limited to strictly ecclesial purposes; rather, there was a demand for icons both from the rich lay people of the Cretan society and from elsewhere in Greece, and consequently an exportation of Cretan icons commenced.83
Although terms “Macedonian school” and “Cretan school” are today often avoided by scholars,84 we must bear in mind that at the end of the 15th century Cretan icon painters have indeed established not just simply a trend but a specific school, which in terms of technique, style, as well as general iconographic approach, is in most cases clearly rec- ognisable.85 As in regards to fresco painting of the second half of the 15th century, as Garidis observes, this development is notable only in the technique and generally does not entail any necessarily Cretan phenomenon.86
While the best examples of fresco painting of the Cretan school are rendered outside Crete, in Crete itself there are very few preserved frescoes from the 16th century; we note those in the chapel of the Dormition of the Virgin in the village of Agia Paraskevi in Amariou (1516), and those in Episkopi Pediados. The movement of painters capable of painting on large wall-surfaces was instigated by the fact that in the 16th century, Mount Athos and Meteora, the two most significant monastic centres, were experiencing a new period of prosperity, which owed to the general prosperity of the Ottoman empire at the time.87 As stated by Chatzidakis, generally speaking we could say that the Cretan-school
81 Manolis Chatzidakis, Les débuts de l'école crétoise et la question de l' école dite italo-grecque (Venice: Hellenic Ins- titute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies, 1974), 169–211.
82 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), 70.
83 Ibid., 75.
84 Gabriel Millet introduced these terms in order to clarify the differences between the two styles.
85 Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Ύστερη Βυζαντινή Τέχνη (1204–1453), στον τόμο: Iστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, τομ. Θ, Αθήνα 1979, 169–211.
86 Furthermore, in the same period, this specific development, limited to technique in the domain of fresco paint- ing, is also observed in Cyprus, Epirus, Moldavia and elsewhere. See: Μίλτος Γαρίδης, Μεταβυζαντινή Ζωγραφική (1450– 1600). Η εντοίχια ζωγραφική μετά την πτώση του Βυζαντίου στον Ορθόδοξο κόσμο και στις χώρες υπό ξένη κυριαρχία. Με- τάφραση: Αγγελική Γαρίδη (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κ. Σπανός, «Βιβλιοπωλείο των βιβλιοφίλων», 2007), 73.
87 Μανόλης Χατζηδάκης, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος Κρης: Κείμενα 1940–1994 (Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέ- ζης, 1995), 26.
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