LOT 0363

Large Veneto-Cretan Icon of the Pieta

16TH CENTURY A.D.

20 7/8 x 18 in. (2.6 kg, 53 x 45.5 cm with frame).

Mary portrayed with sorrow expression, seated on a marble bench, cradling the body of Jesus on her lap; the maphorion of Mary rendered in red carmine with geometrically shaped folds, embellished with a golden hem, lined internally in grey; the neck and throat of Mary covered by a white fabric, according to the fashion of the time; the haloes decorated with elaborate floral patterns, against a brilliant gold background; on the bottom, hooked rope used for lowering the body from the cross.

Acquired on the European art market.
Private collection, London, UK.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.12792-240886.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Korban, H.K., Icons from the Orthodox World, A private collection, London, 2013, p.54.

Cf. for prototype of these icons, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition Catalogue, From Byzantium to El Greco, London, 1980, no 45.

The painting belongs to the 16th century Veneto-Cretan School. The Venetians, masters of Crete since the 13th century AD, encouraged their Greek subjects to keep and develop their Christian religious traditions while at the same time bringing them into contact with intellectual trends current in Western Europe. The new artistic currents and the great Byzantine tradition were transferred to the Island which was able to adopt that tradition and create a new one. The icon painters were organised into a guild - the Scuola di San Luca - which promoted a specific post-Byzantine style through a system of instruction and apprenticeship which lasted for more than two centuries.