See the Book

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

48.8 x 34 x 2 cm

Mid-18th century

The Cross is projected obliquely against the gold ground, flanked at the level of its arms by three men on two ladders removing the lifeless body of Christ. Their strenuous movements convey the effort required to support the heavy corpse, which flops over at the waist and dangles in front of the ladder. Lower down, a kneeling male figure, perhaps Joseph of Arimathea, spreads out a white winding sheet to receive the body, while another man, with white beard, wearing a turban, a white cloak and high red boots, turns towards the Cross. On the right is the kneeling Virgin, her hands clasped in prayer, while on the left a woman covers her face with her cloak. The icon is elliptical, a shape known in a few Postbyzantine icons, such as that of the Passion of Christ by Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Cat. no. 17), as well as in later, eighteenth-century ones of the Baptism and the Anastasis in Corfu.¹ Towards the bottom, on the white sheet at the base of the Cross, is an inscription in black letters: XEIP κωνσταντίνου κονταρήνη (Hand of Konstantinos Kontarinis). The type of the Signature is strikingly similar to genuine signatures of Konstantinos Kontarinis;² it has the same calligraphic precision and could be considered authentic. However. laboratory examination has shown that it is written on top of a later overpainting. The Western character of the many-figured composition is obvious in the attempted perspective rendering, with foreshortening of the figures around the obliquely placed Cross. However, the scene does not follow known iconographic models familiar from other Westernizing icons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the Flemish engraving used by Theodoros Poulakis in an icon in Cephalonia,³ and the prototype of the painting by Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540) at Volterra (1521), which was repeated later by Daniele da Volterra⁴ and is encountered in an icon at Vanato, Zakynthos⁵ as well as in an icon of Saint Methodios, from the circle of Konstantinos Kontarinis, in Corfu.⁶

The composition of our icon is painted after a work by the French artist Le Brun (1619-1690), know from prints by his friend and contemporary the engraver Audran (1639-1684):⁷ it was thus diffused in seventeenth-century French painting.⁸ The affinities are mainly concentrated in the lower part of the composition, where the Virgin is portrayed in a similar attitude of prayer, with a woman beside her, and another woman expresses her grief by covering her face with her hands, as in our icon. It is interesting to note that Panayotis Doxaras in his treatise Περί ζωγραφίας (manuscript Athens 1724) recommends among other things the prints of ‘Charles Le Brun from France’ as a model for young painters.⁹ Doxaras’s work was modelled on Du Fresne’s French edition of Da Vinci’s treatise, a favourite manual in Le Brun’s Academy in Paris.¹⁰ The adaptation of Le Brun’s prototype of the Descent from the Cross is achieved by rendering it in the characteristic Byzantine style. The outlines are bold and the drawing has a certain sophistication, imitating the technique of icons by Tzanes and Poulakis. The facial expressions are exaggerated, while the dense calligraphic folds of the drapery recall a comparable style in an icon of Saint John the Baptist by Georgios Vidales, (1666), in the Loverdos Collection in the Byzantine Museum, Athens.¹¹ Our icon, with its more vivid colours, was probably produced in a related workshop on Zakynthos.

CONDITION  Very good. Slight damage at the edges top and bottom, which had been overpainted; this was removed in the recent cleaning. The incised preparatory design on the gesso can be clearly seen. See also Appendix III.

BIBLIOGRAPHY  Kalogeropoulos 1926, fig. facing p. 104. Xyngopoulos 1956, 318, n. 5. Vocotopoulos 1990, 163.

PROVENANCE  Zakynthos. Athens, the Theodoros Zoumboulakis Collection, where Kalogeropou- los locates it in his 1926 publication.

NOTES

1. The icon of the Baptism in a traditional style akin to that of Kontarinis’s conservative works, Vocotopoulos 1990, no. 126, fig. 295, and the icon of the Anastasis in a purely Western style of the late 18th century, Holy Metropolis of Corfu 1994, fig. 212.
2. See passim Cat, nos 43 and 44.
3. Rigopoulos 1979, pls 154, 155. Cephalonia I 1989, fig. 235.
4. Venturi 1979, fig. 105.
5. Work of an unknown painter of the late 18th century, Charalambidis 1978, 32ff., fig. 8 and 33¢f., fig. 9.
6. The scene is represented on the saint’s epigonation. Vocotopoulos 1990, no, 136, fig. 314.
7. Cf. Male 1932, 282. The engraving is in Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes (Ed 68, Da 35, fol. 82). Lebrun’s work is in the Rennes Museum; for the painter e.g. see Benezit 1961, V, 459ff.
8. E.g. see Male 1932, 282, fig. 164 (work by Jouvenet, 1697, in the Louvre).
9. Lambros 1871, 27. Procopiou 1939, 102-103, 112.
10, Doxaras illustrates his handbook with his own copies of works by Poussin. Procopiou 1939, L03ff., pls 8-9. Kyriakou 1982, 219, 223, pls IA’, IE’.
11. Chatzidakis 1987, 191. Konomos 1988, 83, fig. 44.

See the Book

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

48.8 x 34x 2 cm

Mid-18th century

The Cross is projected obliquely against the gold ground, flanked at the level of its arms by three men on two ladders removing the lifeless body of Christ. Their strenuous movements convey the effort required to support the heavy corpse, which flops over at the waist and dangles in front of the ladder. Lower down, a kneeling male figure, perhaps Joseph of Arimathea, spreads out a white winding sheet to receive the body, while another man, with white beard, wearing a turban, a white cloak and high red boots, turns towards the Cross. On the right is the kneeling Virgin, her hands clasped in prayer, while on the left a woman covers her face with her cloak. The icon is elliptical, a shape known in a few Postbyzantine icons, such as that of the Passion of Christ by Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Cat. no. 17), as well as in later, eighteenth-century ones of the Baptism and the Anastasis in Corfu.¹ Towards the bottom, on the white sheet at the base of the Cross, is an inscription in black letters: XEIP κωνσταντίνου κονταρήνη (Hand of Konstantinos Kontarinis). The type of the Signature is strikingly similar to genuine signatures of Konstantinos Kontarinis;² it has the same calligraphic precision and could be considered authentic. However. laboratory examination has shown that it is written on top of a later overpainting. The Western character of the many-figured composition is obvious in the attempted perspective rendering, with foreshortening of the figures around the obliquely placed Cross. However, the scene does not follow known iconographic models familiar from other Westernizing icons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the Flemish engraving used by Theodoros Poulakis in an icon in Cephalonia,³ and the prototype of the painting by Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540) at Volterra (1521), which was repeated later by Daniele da Volterra⁴ and is encountered in an icon at Vanato, Zakynthos⁵ as well as in an icon of Saint Methodios, from the circle of Konstantinos Kontarinis, in Corfu.⁶
The composition of our icon is painted after a work by the French artist Le Brun (1619-1690), know from prints by his friend and contemporary the engraver Audran (1639-1684):⁷ it was thus diffused in seventeenth-century French painting.⁸ The affinities are mainly concentrated in the lower part of the composition, where the Virgin is portrayed in a similar attitude of prayer, with a woman beside her, and another woman expresses her grief by covering her face with her hands, as in our icon. It is interesting to note that Panayotis Doxaras in his treatise Περί ζωγραφίας (manuscript Athens 1724) recommends among other things the prints of ‘Charles Le Brun from France’ as a model for young painters.⁹ Doxaras’s work was modelled on Du Fresne’s French edition of Da Vinci’s treatise, a favourite manual in Le Brun’s Academy in Paris.¹⁰ The adaptation of Le Brun’s prototype of the Descent from the Cross is achieved by rendering it in the characteristic Byzantine style. The outlines are bold and the drawing has a certain sophistication, imitating the technique of icons by Tzanes and Poulakis. The facial expressions are exaggerated, while the dense calligraphic folds of the drapery recall a comparable style in an icon of Saint John the Baptist by Georgios Vidales, (1666), in the Loverdos Collection in the Byzantine Museum, Athens.¹¹ Our icon, with its more vivid colours, was probably produced in a related workshop on Zakynthos.

CONDITION Very good. Slight damage at the edges top and bottom, which had been overpainted; this was removed in the recent cleaning. The incised preparatory design on the gesso can be clearly seen. See also Appendix III.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Kalogeropoulos 1926, fig. facing p. 104. Xyngopoulos 1956, 318, n. 5. Vocotopoulos 1990, 163.

PROVENANCE Zakynthos. Athens, the Theodoros Zoumboulakis Collection, where Kalogeropou- los locates it in his 1926 publication.

NOTES

1. The icon of the Baptism in a traditional style akin to that of Kontarinis’s conservative works, Vocotopoulos 1990, no. 126, fig. 295, and the icon of the Anastasis in a purely Western style of the late 18th century, Holy Metropolis of Corfu 1994, fig. 212.
2. See passim Cat, nos 43 and 44.
3. Rigopoulos 1979, pls 154, 155. Cephalonia 1 1989, fig. 235.
4. Venturi 1979, fig. 105.
5. Work of an unknown painter of the late 18th century, Charalambidis 1978, 32ff., fig. 8 and 33¢f., fig. 9.
6. The scene is represented on the saint’s epigonation. Vocotopoulos 1990, no, 136, fig. 314.
7. Cf. Male 1932, 282. The engraving is in Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes (Ed 68, Da 35, fol. 82). Lebrun’s work is in the Rennes Museum; for the painter e.g. see Benezit 1961, V, 459ff.
8. E.g. see Male 1932, 282, fig. 164 (work by Jouvenet, 1697, in the Louvre).
9. Lambros 1871, 27. Procopiou 1939, 102-103, 112.
10, Doxaras illustrates his handbook with his own copies of works by Poussin. Procopiou 1939, L03ff., pls 8-9. Kyriakou 1982, 219, 223, pls IA’, IE’.
11. Chatzidakis 1987, 191. Konomos 1988, 83, fig. 44.