17th – 19th century Picture Routes at the Benaki Museum

In the spirit of Christmas, the exhibition “Icon Paths 17th – 19th century” opens its doors at the Benaki Museum of Piraeus from December 8, with free admission for the public.

Images taken from the museum’s warehouses, as well as material donated to it by private individuals, highlight their diversity in the Greek Orthodox space from the 17th to the 19th century as well as the perception of the community created by the Orthodox identity and shared by populations with different traditions, political status, even language.

The exhibition takes place within the framework of the European research program ERC RICONTRANS, with the main implementing body the Institute of Mediterranean Studies – ITE, the main researcher Iuliana Boitseva and the second contractor the Benaki Museum. It is edited by Anastasia Drandaki, university professor and curator of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine collections of the Benaki Museum.

“The common Byzantine background created a single legacy of pictorial themes and technical solutions that were constantly enriched and in various ways, in each production center, without, however, rupturing the common components that allowed the movement of images from place to place and their common use in the the same place of worship, from Russia to the Ionian Islands, Crete and Asia Minor” notes Anastasia Drandaki.

The first of the five sections of the exhibition begins with the most important centers of image production. Crete and the Ionian Islands, Mount Athos and Macedonia, Epirus, the Aegean area, Moscow, Yaroslavl are represented, as well as major pilgrimages, local and extra-local, such as the Holy Places and Evangelistria of Tinos.

A special unit is the works of private devotion, in which the particular aesthetic preferences and devotional practices of the customers are expressed. Beloved patron saints, copies of miraculous works and local cults express the diversity of iconography and style but also the communication between areas with dense Orthodox populations and ecclesiastical centers.

The different ways of receiving and assimilating elements of Western European painting are examined in a separate section. The manifestations of the dialogue with Western art highlight at the same time the particular political conditions and the commercial activity of each region.

The fourth section talks about the images in the collection of Antonis Benakis, their importance in the creation of the museum, since they are at the heart of his museum collections. The way Benakis perceived the images, the way they were displayed in the first museological structure of the Museum, in 1931, but also the dark side of collecting, with the addition of fake signatures or the creation of fake works, are commented on in the exhibition.

The route of the exhibition is completed with data from the ongoing technical analysis of the Russian images of the Benaki Museum, implemented by the conservation department, within the framework of ERC RICONTRANS.

The study complements the long-term research carried out by the museum on the technology of images and offers valuable information for understanding the technique and materials as well as for the conservation of the works. Visitors have the rare opportunity to approach selected works in depth through the lens of the stereo microscope.

RES-EMP

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