Comments on the artistic interchange between conquered Byzantium and Venice as well as on its political background

Political choices and historical imperatives dictated a rapprochement of the Eastern and Western Churches in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Venetian state, attracted by the superiority of Byzantine culture, always coveted a seat among its beneficiaries, while renowned Byzantine exiles sought Venetian assistance against the Ottomans. The Orthodox artworks they brought with them, gave the artists of Renaissance Venice the opportunity to commune with the art of Constantinople, creating new cultural contributions. In the first decades of the sixteenth century, the political and religious alliances of Ohrid and the West were associated with a Venetian-inspired artistic revival in painting on the territory of the Archbishop of Ohrid.

From my fi rst encounter with the writings of Gojko Subotić on Ohrid and Kastoria, I was impressed by the art historian's penetrating insight, as well as by the scholar's ability to interpret cultural phenomena by combining historical information.Subsequently, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with him and admiringly observe his combinatorial thinking and his deep knowledge of European culture, of Byzantine as well as Western art.I shall never forget our long discussions during research expeditions with him bringing to life the distant past of monuments and inscriptions through his passion to uncover their secrets.These musings on the cultural exchanges between Venice and Byzantium in the fi rst centuries after the Ottoman conquest are a small return gift for his honorary volume.
In the fi fteenth century, Venice prevailed in the Mediterranean, and this triumph is an important historical issue, where everything came together; the virtues of a hardworking people, the wisdom of an astute government, the accidents of history.However, we should not forget that this triumph also resulted from the compliance and weaknesses of the Byzantine Empire, upon which Venice imposed its services.It was Venice that turned the Fourth Crusade towards Constantinople.The sack of the capital of Byzantium and the division of the Empire set the stage for the glory of Venice.Plunder was one goal.However, the conquerors had an equally important goal: parceling out the plundered culture.One important act of political ambition and artistic interchange was the transport of the Byzantine Madonna Comments on the artistic interchange between conquered Byzantium and Venice as well as on its political background We can detect the painting style and Greek inscriptions of the icon in a series of works of Venetian workshops, especially in the works of the major fi fteenth century workshop belonging to the Bellini family. 1 At the same time, the symbolic importance of the Virgin of St. Mark for the historical fortune of the Doges' city was demonstrated in May 1797, a whole six centuries after the icon was brought from Constantinople, when the Venetians appealed to her to save the city from Napoleon's forces. 2 For centuries, Europeans have drawn from the sources of culture in the same fashion, transplanting, mixing, and giving objects new life.
The new life a Renaissance artist from Venice undertook to give to a work of Orthodox art from the Palaiologan period is associated with the contribution of a Byzantine exile who deeply honored Venice and was deeply honored in return.In 1472, Gentile Bellini was commissioned to paint the door of a tabernacle, which housed a reliquary with two relics of the True Cross and two pieces of Christ's robe.This reliquary was the famous staurotheke (fi g. 1) Bessarion had given to the Venetian Scuola Grande dei Battuti della Carità, 3 which held a prominent position in the political and religious life of Venice. 4In 1463, Bessarion had been elected a member of its confraternity and had marked the occasion by pledging a precious reliquary cross. 5The reliquary's fi rst round of adventures came to an end in the Albergo of the Santa Maria della Carità in 1472-1473 with Gentile Bellini's commission to create a new work that would protect the sacred relic (fi g. 2).
The Staurotheke's second round of adventures began with the dissolution of the confraternity in the eighteenth century, when it passed into private hands and, in 1821, it became the property of Emperor Francis I of Austria.In 1949, after World War I, it was returned to Venice.There, Italian sensibility, as well as, perhaps, historical conjunctions ac-corded it an enviable spot in the Accademia, the building of the Scuola della Carità, in the same location Bessarion had originally intended for it.
However, its fi rst round of travels had resulted from the political and religious maneuvering between Constantinople, Rome, and Venice; these involved a series of people, all associated with Bessarion.The Irene Palaiologina referred to in the inscription of the cross remains unidentifi ed, although various identifi cations have been proposed, linking the princess with the emperors, Michael VIII (r.1259-1282), Michael IX (r.1295-1320), John VIII (r.1425-1448), and Constantine XI (r.1449-1453). 6In any case, the stylistic features of the Crucifi xion scenes ornamenting the reliquary date the original decoration of the piece to the Palaiologan period, and more specifi cally the second half of the fourteenth century. 7Another, less legible, inscription on the holy relic has been interpreted as ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΠΝ[ΕΥΜΑΤΙΚ]ΟΥ (of Gregory the confessor); this person has been identifi ed as Gregory, the Uniate Patriarch of Constantinople from 1445 to 1455 ( †1459). 8If this is a correct reading of the inscription, it is reasonable to assume that Gregory received the Cross from Irene Palaiologina before he became Patriarch (summer 1445), an offi ce that otherwise should have been mentioned in the inscription.The precious Cross probably came into Bessarion's keeping in the midfi fteenth century, while he was with the Patriarch in Rome tending to the Byzantine exiles and negotiating with the Western powers over the fate of the Orthodox peoples.The popes of Rome, especially the learned humanist Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, from 1450, played an important role in the efforts of Gregory and Bessarion.As regards Pope Pius II, we should not forget that the central idea of his pontifi cate was the liberation of Europe from Turkish domination; although seriously ill, he placed himself at the head of a crusade, which never actually occurred, and left Rome for the East.He died on August 14, 1464, waiting in vain for Doge Christoforo Moro of Venice in Ancona (fi g. 3).
It was one year earlier in August 1463, in Venice, that Bessarion had been elected a member of the Scuola della Carità 9 during negotiations with that same doge over the crusade.As previously mentioned, he then promised to donate the reliquary, an object whose importance might have equaled that of his library, which he also donated fi ve years later to Venice, a city where [the Greeks] feel they are entering another Byzantium.In approaching the Scuola della Carità, Bessarion combined his immediate aspirations with a long-term strategy.This political and religious action is also associated with two important fi gures: Ulisse Aliotti, Guardian Grande of the Scuola, offi cial notary, dogal secretary, and count palatine, who signed the act of donation of Bessarion's reliquary,10 as well as Andrea della Sega, Guardian Grande of the Carità.The latter wrote to Bessarion in May 1472, describing the rapturous welcome Venice had given the Cross, the great celebration in the presence of the Doge that took place in the Grand Canal, the heart of the transportation system of the Mediterranean, and the temporary installation of the Cross on the High Altar of St. Mark's. 11The mobilization of all these personages had one basic objective: to create an alliance of the Christian powers against Ottoman expansion.In this alliance, the defeated Byzantines saw hope for salvation through another crusade, the Papal Church perceived another path to imposing its authority over Europe, while the Serenissima had a special interest in curbing the Ottoman's increasing power in the Mediterranean.Thus, Bessarion's reliquary became both the symbol of a crusade and a priceless gift to Venice, to a society that accorded a fundamental importance to sacred relics, especially relics of the Holy True Cross.This is evidenced by the fact that, even before Bessarion's donation, the city of Venice had at least six pieces;12 one of these was in the possession of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, another confraternity that played a very important role in Venetian life.This Scuola was renowned for possessing the miracleworking fragment of wood from the True Cross, which had been donated in 1369 by Philippe de Mérzières, Chancellor of Cyprus and Jerusalem.Leading Venetian painters were Painting was an art that played a very signifi cant role in the culture of Renaissance Venice, and therefore in 1472, the same year the great celebration was organized to welcome Bessarion's Staurotheke, the Scuola della Carità commissioned Gentile Bellini to paint the Byzantine exile's portrait14 as well as the door of the tabernacle where the holy relic was housed.Ulisse Aliotti was most probably involved in choosing the painter, since one of his poems praised Jacopo Bellini, Gentile's father as a new Apelles and Pheidias. 15In any case, the Bellini family had already begun working in 1460 on the monastery church of the Carità. 16The choices Gentile Bellini made to execute the work constituted an essential re-novatio.The comments by M. Chatzidakis on the Palaiologan art of a Patmos icon seem to be valid about Bellini's artwork as well: these works are addressed to an educated public, which was in a position to appreciate, if not to demand, this refi ned and tender lyricism.17In his reproductions of the seven small scenes from the Crucifi xion, which he developed slightly in width, he faithfully reproduced the Greek inscriptions and the movements of the sacred personages.However, while executing the paintings, he distanced himself from the details and from the domination of red so prevalent in the Palaiologan work, giving priority to ochre and complementary black shades.This key decision creates an atmosphere of modesty and respect, which also dominates the lower part of the Renaissance work with the kneeling fi gures of the dedicators-patrons.The fi gure of Bessarion wears a black monk's habit; his face and imploring hand stand out.His presence is juxtaposed with the beseeching fi gures of the Confraternity members, clad in white robes bearing the Carità's pink and black badge.The painting, as faithful to its prototype as is necessary and departing from it as needed, constitutes a defi nite renovatio by a painter who knew, respected, and valued a different type of artistic expression.In the same way, Venice ultimately assimilated Byzantine culture.
During the same period, an event occurred in Renaissance Rome that was also associated with the vision of a Christian crusade against the Ottomans.Its artistic depiction, however, did not draw in any way on Byzantine aesthetics or the Greek language for the accompanying inscriptions.We The following year, the Pope erected a monument by the Milvian Bridge, on the site of the initial ceremonies: the Tempietto di Sant'Andrea a Ponte Milvio.Paolo Taccone was probably the sculptor commissioned by the Pope to create the Renaissance statue of Apostle Andrew, which was accompanied by a large marble latin inscription (fi g. 4). 19he central relief of the tomb of Pius II in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome portrays Bessarion's delivery of the Skull of St. Andrew to the Pope in the same purely Renaissance style; the work was created under the artistic direction of Paolo Taccone (fi g. 5).Renaissance Rome had its own ways of depicting political and religious affairs through art, which differed from those of Venice.
And interestingly in the following century, it was to Rome, the Holy See, that Orthodox churches sent requests for convergence.I am referring to the help sought from the West by the leadership of the Ohrid Archbishopric because of the problems brought about by the Ottoman conquest.During the fi rst half of the sixteenth century, the Ohrid Archbishopric was dominated by the energetic and ambitious personality of Archbishop Prohoros (c.1525-1550), who was very active on the religious, political, and cultural fronts. 20We know that in April 1548, after ordaining Bishop Pafnoutios, Prohoros sent him to minister to the faithful of his Archbishopric who had settled in Southern Italy, while in the same year, the Archbishop corresponded with Pope Paul III. 21 The pursuit of friendly relations with the Papal West on the part of the Orthodox and steadfastly Greek-speaking environment of the Archbishopric of Ohrid under Prohoros was a political stance that the Archbishopric maintained for two centuries.The right of the Orthodox faithful to retain their ceremonial mores and customs, along with, however, the obligation to cite the name of the Pope and to add the Filioque to the Creed, consistently characterized this stance. 22The culmination of the Archbishopric's pro-Western movements was a letter the Ohrid Archbishop and the bishops of Velesa, Velegrada, and Kastoria sent to Don Juan of Spain on June 1, 1576 requesting him to liberate their fl ocks. 23s early as the fi fteenth century, these pro-Western and pro-unionist movements in the Orthodox environment expressed themselves by creating new iconographic themes. 24n the Orthodox iconography of the fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries, the symbol of this unionist policy was the depiction of the Apostles Peter and Paul embracing or holding a replica of the Duomo of Florence. 25In Kastoria, the protothroni of Ohrid, 26 in 1547, during Prohoros' archbishopric, there were two such representations, in a church dedicated, not by chance, to the Holy Apostles: 27 these are a representation of the Embrace in the exterior niche of the church above the central door and a representation of Peter and Paul holding the replica of a church, in its interior.The fi rst representation in a niche above the door depicts the full fi gures of the two saints embracing; it is accompanied by the inscriptions Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΠΕΤΡΟΣ and Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΠΑΥΛΟΣ, while Christ appears in a semi-circle and blesses them (fi g. 6).The representation of the Embrace, most likely the creation of the fi fteenth century Cretan painter Angelos, 28 with a distinctly unionist message, is located also in another Kastoria church, dating to the second half of the sixteenth century.The Embrace on the northern wall of the church of St. George in the Mouzeviki parish, one of the church's few well-preserved representations (fi g. 7), may be an indication of the existence of a broader unionist climate in the city during that period.In any case, in 1547, the wall paintings of the church of the Holy Apostles in Kas-toria were created by Onoufrios, a learned protopapas and exceptionally gifted painter, 29 who was very active and renowned in the Archbishopric and a close collaborator of the dynamic Archbishop Prohoros.We know, from the ktetoric inscription in the Kastoria church, that that his family was from Argos and that he spent time in Venice; this was fi rst staunchly supported by the late George Golombias. 30This information brings the painter closer to the pro-Western ideological choices of the district's sitting Archbishop during that period.Initially, we should also keep in mind a historical conjunction: in 1560, the Peloponnesian city of Argos passed from Venetian to Ottoman rule.Thus, Onoufrios very probably followed a wave of refugees to Venice, possibly as the protégé of the last Catholic bishop of Argos.The painter's stay and apprenticeship in Venice is, on the one hand, clearly and proudly stated in the ktetoric inscription of Kastoria's Holy Apostles church, and on the other, evident in the abundant Western elements dominating his paintings, frescoes, and portable icons. 31Tall, thin fi gures of saints with traces of Late Gothic style (fi g. 8) placed between arches decorated with skylights of a purely Italian origin, architectural elements and iconographic details creating an atmosphere that exudes Italy in this Kastoria church, despite the fact that the underlying canvas of Onoufrios' art remains Byzantine.At  the same time, the painter's high education, evident in the dedicatory and ktetoric inscriptions of his works, is most likely associated with the existence of an important educational institution, the Ohrid Museum, a clerical school where instruction in the Greek language, theology, and literature was of paramount importance. 32He was evidently a painter with an extensive knowledge of Palaiologan art and who was enriched through his experience of Western painting, which he encountered and assimilated in Venice.Onoufrios was also in a position to transmit pro-Western ideas and tendencies to the Orthodox churches within the pro-unionist environment of the seventeenth century Ohrid Archdiocese.Two representations of the Holy Trinity, also by Onoufrios, in the churches of St. Nicholas in Shelcan near Elbasan (Albania) and of the Holy Apostles in Kastoria support this hypothesis.These portrayals of the triadic Deity, frequently charged with ideological messages, acquire particular importance if they are associated with the spiritual, religious, and political climate of the time in the Ohrid Archdiocese.The fi rst representation, in the church of St. Nicholas in Shelcan, with the inscription ΑΓΙΑ ΤΡΙΑΣ portrays a threefaced Christ fi gure that radiates light (fi g. 9). 33The rare, in Orthodox painting, representation, which is also reported to exist in the Church of the Transfi guration at Zrze, 34 where Onoufrios also worked, is directly linked to the Western Three-Headed Trinity, which was widespread in the Catholic West during the fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries.At this precise time, the extensive revival of the pre-Christian threeheaded iconographic subject, along with the simultaneous elimination of the common upper body from where the three faces of the Holy Trinity emerge, in older representations, has been associated with the effort to strengthen the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well, as the existence of a common upper body strengthened the Orthodox doctrine of the procession solely from the Father. 35he clear emphasis on the face of Christ in Onoufrios' wallpainting in Shelcan, which aims to emphasize the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit by the Son (Filioque) as well, is also pursued in another representation by the same painter in Kastoria's Holy Apostles church, which contains the above-mentioned wall-paintings of the Apostles Peter and Paul with their unionist elements.
Recent conservation work on the roof of the church in Kastoria brought to light an anthropomorphic representation of the Holy Trinity on the western wall, above the entrance (fi g. 10). 36The center of the representation is occupied by a bust within concentric circles, with the features of Christ and the long white hair of the Ancient of Days.The portrayal of the Father and the Son as one fi gure that blesses is accompanied by the inscriptions Ο ΩΝ, Ι(ΗΣΟΥ)C X(ΡΙΣΤΟ)C and Ο ΠΑΛΑΙΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΗΜΕΡΩΝ, while a text regarding Christ Pantocrator is recorded on the eiliton. 37A large inscription on the lower part of the wall painting refers to observing the Laws to ensure Future Salvation.The absence of the Holy Spirit from the representation leads us to think it was a deliberate omission that aimed to accentuate the presence of the Son and the Holy Spirit's procession from Him.Similarly, in earlier representations of the Hetoimasia of the Throne, the omission of the Gospel aimed to strengthen the Orthodox doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father alone. 38This theory is reinforced by Christ's accentuated role in the composition, both iconographically as well as through the inscriptions.It appears that the correct choice of artist was made when donors selected the eclectic painter and learned priest, Onoufrios, who had apprenticed in Venice, to portray in a representation with theological implications the unionist climate of the Archbishopric in the time of Archbishop Prohoros.His art was widespread and his son Nikolaos and his Cypriot partner Onoufrios continued his work throughout the Archbishopric of Ohrid, in Verati, Kastoria, Valsh, Zrze, Kičevo, and the monastery of St. Naum. 39nce again Venice appears as a center infl uencing and forming Orthodox painters in a way that simultaneously demonstrates its own affi nities with the civilization of Byzantium.These eclectic affi nities are evident in the example of Gentile Bellini's renovatio of Bessarion's reliquary.Both Запажања о уметничкој размени између освојене Византије и Венеције и њеној политичкој позадини

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. Paolo Taccone, statue of Apostle Andrew and dedicatory inscription, 1463.Rome, Tempietto di Sant'Andrea a Ponte Milvio are referring to the arrival in Rome from the city of Patras of the Skull of Saint Andrew, carried by Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of the conquered Moreas and brother to Konstantinos Palaiologos.Once again, Bessarion was the mediator and he received the holy relic near the Tiber's Milvian Bridge.On April 11, 1462, after the offi cial Palm Sunday ceremony in the Church of St. Peter in the Vatican, Pope Pius II deposited the holy relic in the church before a massed throng of very emotional worshippers.Then Bessarion, in a memorable speech reminded him of the miracles performed by St. Andrew, the Apostle Peter's brother, and urged the Pope, as Peter's heir, and Rome's fl ock to embark on a new crusade against the Ottomans. 18