Two Signed Seventeenth Century Icons of the Cretan School from the Hermitage Museum

Two signed seventeenth century icons of the Cretan school from the Hermitage Museum Yuri Pyatnitsky* State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg UDC 75.071.1(=14:495.9) 75.051.046.3(470)»16» DOI 10.2298/ZOG1236189P оригиналан научни рад The article concerns the authorship of two Cretan icons the fi gure of whom is only partially preserved. Below the from the ex-collection of Nikolay Likhachev held nowa- Lord’s marble podium extend three concentric, circular seg- days in the Hermitage museum. The iconography, stylistic ments (rendered in shades of blue). The lowermost of them features and techniques used in the icons prove dating to circumscribes a cherry-colored rectangle, within which is the seventeenth century. The first icon was signed by Ioan- rendered an open gate. The latter is painted in a warm ochre. nis Lampardos from Rethymnon. It has a rare iconography “Deesis – the Gate of Salvation”. The inscription on the sec- The Greek inscriptions at the bottom, namely, Η ΠΥΛΗ ΤΗC ond icon, the Virgin Lambovitissa, says that it was painted CѠΤΗΡΙΑC [the Gate of Salvation] (in gold), and ΧΕΙΡ by hierodeacon Stephanos Tzankarolos. He is famous for his ἸѠ[ΑΝΝ]ΟΥ Λ[Α]ΜΠΑΡΔΟΥ [hand of Ioannis Lampar- works created on the island of Corfu where he lived in the dos] (rendered as a monogram, in black), identify the subject Holy Trinity monastery. and the painter of the icon, respectively (Fig. 2). Key words: icon painting, Crete, post-Byzantine art, the sev- Considerable damage of the original gold background, enteenth century, Joannis Lampardos, Stephanos Tzankarolos at some point in time, led to its overpainting with a thick layer of light-brown ochre. At that time, also, new inscrip- The Hermitage Collection of Byzantine and post- tions (in red) designating the depicted saints were added. Byzantine icons includes several signed panels painted by During this partial “renovation”, the inscriptions referring artists of the Cretan school. This article introduces two sev- to the saints George and Demetrios were mutually confused, enteenth-century icons, namely, a Deesis – Gate of Salva- and those on Christ’s Gospel and on the scrolls held by the tion by Ioannis Lampardos, and an Enthroned Virgin with the saints were retouched. Child by Stephanos Tzankarolas. In addition to expanding The icon was transferred to the State Hermitage in 1930 the corpus of signed works by Cretan painters, these icons’ from the State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, where it publication shall hopefully broaden our understanding of had entered in 1913 as part of the famous icon-collection of Cretan icon-painting. Nikolai Likhachev. A fragment of an antiquarian’s label on the back of the panel indicates that Likhachev acquired the 1. Deesis – The Gate of Salvation by Ioannis Lampar- icon in Italy. This prominent collector and scholar had no- dos (inv. no. I-430) (Fig. 1)1 ticed the rare subject of the icon: during the acquisition pro- The icon measures 42.2 × 48 × 2 cm and is painted cess of the collection to the Russian Museum, he noted the on a panel consisting of two boards of cypress wood, which following in the inventory list: “Deesis. The Throne of Salva- are joined at the back with two vertical dowels of the same tion? Deesis of a special type of the seventeenth-eighteenth 3 wood. A metal hanging loop is fi xed at the center on the [centuries]. New Greek [painting].” As a matter of fact, we backside. The front of the panel is fl at, and the painting is cannot name any other, thematically similar icon among the executed on gesso ground over glued canvas. output of the Cretan school. Hence, we hope that the publica- The icon’s compositional scheme is quite sophisticat- tion of the present Hermitage icon shall help in identifying ed and its iconographic theme is rare. At the top, Christ sits analogous works in museums or private collections. on a broad throne, which stands upon a cherry-colored mar- In attempting to analyze the present icon, attention ble platform; He holds the opened Gospel in His left hand should be focused fi rst to the designatory Greek inscription, and blesses with His right, whilst, on the same level and Η ΠΥΛΗ ΤΗC CѠΤΗΡΙΑC (The Gate of Salvation). The fl anking the throne, stand the Virgin and St John Prodromos, 2 * [email protected] their hands extended in supplication. Four steps – rendered 1 Yu. Pyatnitsky, The ‘Deesis: as the Gate of Salvation’ icon by in green color – lead to the Lord’s marble platform. Flanking Ioannis Lampardos, Cretan artist of the 17th century, in: The Hermitage these steps, the following saints – arranged according to rank readings in memory of V. Levinson-Lessing: Summarized reports 2002, – are represented in full length: (starting from the top), the Saint Petersburg 2002, 72–75 (in Russian). 2 This iconographic variant of the Deesis evokes the theme of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the warrior-saints Demetrios and Last Judgment. George, the Church Fathers John Chrysostom and Spyridon 3 Iz kollekt͡ sii akademika N. P. Likhacheva. Katalog vistavki, Saint of Trimithous, the monk St Anthony, and an unknown saint, Petersburg 1993, Prilozhenie 1 (List of icons). 242, no. 163. 189 ЗОГРАФ 36 (2012) [189–197] Fig. 1. Icon “Deesis – the Gate of Salvation” by Ioannis Lampardos. State Hermitage museum, Saint Petersburg special Greek word for “gate” employed here could be more The notion of the two “paths” leading to either Good precisely translated as “narrow gate, small door, or garden or Evil was paramount in the Judaic tradition; hence, it was gate”. Obviously, in the present case, the different nuances clearly understood by the followers of Christ. It is a central of the word “gate” in Greek came into a play that corre- notion both in the Essene literature, and in early-Christian sponds with the Biblical and theological traditions about the texts, the most signifi cant of the latter being The Teaching of opposed “wide” and “narrow” gates, that is, the gates lead- the Twelve Apostles (Didache), where it is stated that: “There ing to Good and Evil. are two ways, one of life and one of death, but there is a great The textual reference relating to the subject of our icon difference between the two.”4 According to many scholars, is to be found in the Gospel of Matthew: “Enter ye in by the the Greek text harks back to a Jewish original, which, regret- narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that tably, has not survived. The issue of choosing the right path leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in there- is also tackled in the Old Testament, namely in Deuteronomy by”; “For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that lead- (30, 19), in Jeremiah (21, 8) and in Baruch (4,1). eth unto life, and few are they that fi nd it” (Matthew, 7:13–14). Lampardos’s visual rendition of the notion of the “nar- This closing passage from the Sermon on the Mount row gate of salvation” is expressed in the sharp-edged trian- addresses man’s perennial quest to fi nd his path to salvation. gular form circumscribed by the lower circular segment that One should enter through the narrow gate, but in order to represents the earthly realm. It is worth noting in this context do so, one has to accept Christ’s commandments, with re- that the same notion is further stressed in another detail of gard to his relation both with God and with his fellow men. the icon, namely, in the text written in the open pages of the Emphasis is especially placed on the choosing of the nar- Gospel held by Christ. Though fragmentally preserved, the row gate for entering into (true) life, for the “wide” gate and text allows for the identifi cation of its source, which, again, the “broad” path are those leading to spiritual death. Verse is from the Gospel of Matthew: “Come unto me, all ye that 14 clearly states that the Lord’s followers should choose the labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”, “Take way that He showed to them, in contradistinction to all the other people, the multitudes, who follow the “wide” path 4 Uchenie dvenadt͡ sati apostolov, in: Pisanii͡ a muzhei apostol’skikh, 190 that leads to their demise. Moscow 2008, 41–50. Pyatnitsky Y.: Two signed seventeenth century icons of the Cretan school from the Hermitage Museum It is our contention that in the Hermitage icon textual postulates refl ect to visual images. Thus the words from Matthew 11:28–29 fi nd a visual parallel in the images of the Saints who stand on the steps leading to the throne of Christ, for it is those who, during their earthly lives, chose the “narrow gate”, took upon themselves the “yoke” (i.e. the teaching of the Lord), and accomplished deeds for the glory of Christ and the Church. And, precisely because of this, they earned the Heavenly Kingdom and now stand by the throne of the Lord. The present icon, by dint of both its visual vocabulary and its textual references, possesses a clear symbolic-moral character. Distinguished by a crystalline, logical simplicity, its iconographic formulation does not have any direct par- allels in post-Byzantine art. Hence, the hypothesis that this formulation is a personal creation of Ioannis Lampardos is highly sustainable. On purely stylistic grounds, it should be mentioned that the icon’s genuine and refi ned color-scheme – a combination of gold, green, blue, and cherry hues (the latter speckled by Fig.

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