AN IMPORTANT LATE BYZANTINE ICON OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST

細節

AN IMPORTANT LATE BYZANTINE ICON OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST

CRETE, BEGINNING OF THE 15TH CENTURY

Against an elaborate mountain setting, the Virgin reclines upon a red pallet at the mouth of a cave, in which the swaddled infant can be seen within His crib, attended by a cow and an ass, she leans over to watch two serving women preparing a bath for the Child, one of them testing the water with her hand, in the right foreground Joseph sits in discussion with a shepherd dressed from head to toe in sheepskin, to the left, the three Magi appear mounted on horses and gesticulating towards a star, on the right, an angel approaches a shepherd whose companion is seated on a rock playing a flute and wearing a hat made of leaves, whilst below, the flock drink from a stream, from either side of the central pinnacle, groups of angels appear, those on the left praying whilst those on the right venerate, their hands covered with their garments, along the bottom border, a brown goat is seen scratching its ear and a small black dog looks up towards Joseph, the blue arc of the sky bears traces of a gilt Latin inscription
26¼ x 25¼in. (66.5 x 63cm.)

來源

The Volpi Collection, Florence

出版

E.Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, (Florence, 1949), p.114, no.293
V.Lazarev, Storia della pittura bizantina, (Turin, 1967), p.407, fig.574
M. Chatzidakis, 'Les Débuts de l'école crétoise et la question de l'école dite italogreque', Mnimosynon Sophias Antoniadi, Venice, 1974, p.120, pl.32
Charleroi, Palais des Beaux Arts, L'art des icônes en Crete et dans les îles après Byzance, (1982), Cat. No. 10.
London, Royal Academy, From Byzantium to El Greco: Greek Frescoes and Icons,, 1987), No. 30, p. 97 and 166.
D. Buckton, Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture from British Collections, London, 1994, No. 228, pp. 213-215.
C. Baltoyannis, \kEikones Mhthr Qeou\K, Athens, 1994, No.62, pp.226-228, pls.115-117.

展覽

Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1982
London, Royal Academy, 1987
London, British Museum, 1994

拍品專文

The icon is the earliest of a group of similar 15th Century Cretan panels which are all iconographically and stylistically linked. It is suggested that they all share a common Constantinopolitan prototype related to the 14th century Nativity fresco from the Church of the Peribleptos at Mistra (c.1370).

Compare with icons in:
The Byzantine Museum, Athens (see exhibition catalogue \kEikones Ths Krhtikhs Tecnhs\K, Heraklion, 1993, no. 202);
Patmos (see M. Chatzidakis, Icons of Patmos: Questions of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Painting, Athens, 1985, no. 39, p. 87, pl. 35)
The Hellenic Institute, Venice (See M. Chatzidakis, From Candia to Venice:Greek Icons in Italy, 15th-16th Centuries, Athens, 1993, no.12, p.62)
The Hermitage, St Petersburg, (See W. Felicetti-Liebenfels, Geschichte der byzantinischen Ikonenmalerei, Olten-Lausanne, 1956, pl.129).
A private German collection, (see Galerie Ilas Neufert, Katalog Der Herbstausstellung 1976: Griechischer und Russicher Ikonen Des 10.-18. Jahrhunderts, 25 October - 22 December 1976, No.3, pp.14-15).

The influence of Italian painting can clearly be seen in the treatment of the landscape and the inclusion of the naturalistically composed animals. These features, combined with the presence of the Latin inscription may indicate that the icon was produced on Crete for a Venetian patron.