Christ Nymphios - Tempera on gold background , Early 16th Veneto-cretan Master

Venetian-Cretan master of the early 16th century, icon of Christ "Nymphios". Tempera on gold background on wooden panel. Measures cm 41 x 29 The work is accompanied by our expertise as experts specialized in ancient painting and sculpture. Holy Week, in the Eastern tradition and in Byzantine rite churches, is dominated by the theme of the marriage of God with humanity, from which the name of the icon derives. In fact, under this title we find three different icons, but linked to each other by their common location within the framework of the celebrations of Holy Week. This icon fixes the image of Christ the Bridegroom at the moment preceding the ascent to Calvary, a representation known in the West as Ecce Homo: Christ is represented with the red cloak and the crown of thorns. The work focuses on the face of Christ, depicted according to purely Byzantine canons: the precise contours, the dark eyes outlined in black in the oriental manner, the modulation of the complexion achieved under a dark and dense brown paint, a greater emphasis on the cheeks, the bright color of the robe with a geometric pattern of folds. Another Byzantine element is the magnificent gold background against which the halo stands out, meticulously engraved. The subject of the “Nymphios” is not very common in Veneto-Cretan painting, so it is a rare work. The painting underwent a conservative restoration in a specialized and approved laboratory consisting of cleaning the old oxidized paints to restore the splendor of the original colors. The gilding is entirely original and perfectly preserved. The wooden panel is well preserved and has never been parqueted. The study of the painting under a microscope during the restoration confirms the dating. Looking at the photos in detail, you can notice the very subtle cracks in the gilded part and the paint. The term "Cretan School" refers to an important pictorial school that originated in Crete around the first half of the 14th century and slowly developed to establish itself in the second half of the 15th century. At that time, the island was under Venetian control, which began in 1204 with the sack of Constantinople and ended in 1669. This artistic school saw the evolution of the classical Byzantine style following the introduction of Western pictorial figures, particularly Venetian but also Tuscan and Flemish. The formation of the new style of the Cretan School was determined mainly by the fact that before the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, many iconographers left the mainland directly to the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, mainly Crete, bringing with them the art of the Paleo-Renaissance. The island, already under Venetian rule, became one of the most flourishing from an artistic point of view, as contact with Venetian artists introduced aspects of the Italian Renaissance into Cretan art, especially regarding techniques and materials. There was a contamination between the two styles that led, between the 16th and 17th centuries, to the birth of a new style.