The Crucifixion

120 - The Crucifixion

Crete or Ionian Islands, 17/18th century Tempera and gold on wood panel. Minimal worn. Traces of cutting, minimal lost. 27.1 x 19.7 cm Provenance: An Italian Private Collection Set against an elaborate architectural background representing the city of Jerusalem, Christ depicted on the cross in the upper centre. The Virgin, the other Mary are standing to the left below in grief. St John the Evangelist and Longinus with open text scroll are standing to the right. This icon has been painted in bright colours. The Crucifixion expresses both divinity and humanity of Christ. The Crucifixion outside the walls of Jerusalem expresses not only the people’s rejection of the Messiah, but also the universal character of His sacrifice. As both High Priest and victim, He offers Himself up and is offered up for all. During the entire Pachal cycle, the liturgy continually chants „…trampling down death by death…“,clearlyemphaisizing that the death of Christ on the Cross is not a failure but it is already the victory over death. Hence the iconography of the icon does not show a tortured body that looks vanquished. Christ is painted as the Master of Life radiating the Devine Presence. The Cretan icon painters continued to flourish, until the mid of the 17th century, when the Ottoman Turks occupied all the island except for Candia, which finally fell after twenty years of siege in 1669. After the Ottoman occupation of Crete, the centre of Greek painting moved to the Ionian Islands, which remained under Venetian rule until the Napoleonic Wars. A new artistic movement was created called the Heptanese School which was mostly influenced by Western European artistic trends. Many Cretan artists migrated to the Heptanese or Western Europe to enjoy the artistic freedom. In the 17th century Cretan painters were circulating in the Ionian world, with Venice as final destination. From the late sixteenth century onward, and above all in the seventeenth, the residence of Cretan refugees is well attested in Corfu and the other Ionian islands. Professional, economic, or political reasons, natural disasters or plagues, and above all the ever-increasing Turkish threat called forth these population displacements. Thus, quite a number of Cretan painters are found living or staying for some time in Corfu before their final stop, which was normally Venice. In this way, works by Cretan painters already known in the Ionian Islands were now painted in workshops created by refugee painters in their new homeland. Particularly after 1669, with the final fall of Crete to the Turks, their presence in the islands was further strengthened by the arrival of the last Cretan artists, who once more took refuge in Venice or the Ionian Islands, primarily in the two largest urban centers of Zakynthos (Zante) and Corfu. Literatur: A. Neubauer (Hrsg.): Himmelsstreiter – Himmelsreiter, Frankfurt am Main 2007, 195-197.

Italo-Kretisch / Ionische Inseln, 17./18. Jh.

Catalogueprice: 4.000 - 6.000

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