The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

Holy Images: the Greek Icons from the Velimezis Collection

11 September 2009 The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the collaboration and support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation jointly present Holy Images: the Greek Icons from the Velimezis Collection, the exhibition of more than 40 Post-Byzantine icons.

The exhibition (Halls N 364 - 367, Winter Palace) is held under the auspices of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic, Dr. Karolos Papoulias. The inaugural ceremony will take place on September 11th, 2009.

The Post-Byzantine icons of the Velimezis Collection were donated to the Onassis Foundation in 2008, by Mr. Emilios F. Margaritis. The Collection continues its journey, having already been presented in 19 international exhibitions. The most recent exhibition was realized in November 2008, by the Onassis Foundation, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum and the Makris-Margaritis Anthivola Collection, at the Arts Center of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

Greek icons have always been specially venerated in Russia; we have never forgotten that the Orthodox faith came to us from Byzantium, from the Greeks. The icons displayed at the exhibition date back to the 16th-18th centuries, the time when Byzantium no longer existed as a state, but still preserved a lively and evolving artistic tradition. This period is known to researchers as the Post-Byzantine age, when local artistic schools with their individual manner and technique were formed in different regions formerly belonging to the Byzantine Empire. But they were all based on ancient traditions of Byzantine icon-painting of the 4th-mid 15th centuries. Crete, which became a protectorate of Venice, gave rise to the splendid and refined Cretan school, in which Byzantine traditions and techniques of icon-painting were influenced by Western European art, primarily that of Venice itself.

The Greek artists in the Italian region of Otranto also had their own distinctive Latin style. On the other hand, the icon painters from the monasteries of the Mount of Athos cultivated and preserved the Byzantine iconography and techniques, and shunned Latin novelties for a long time. After the Venetian-Turkish war for the domination of Crete, many Cretan Greeks, artists among them, moved to the Ionian islands - Corfu, Zakynthos, Cephalonia, Lefkada - and contributed to the development of local icon-painting workshops. The painters of Epirus in Northern Greece, who evolved their own individual style, were most active in the 18th and 19th centuries. The icons at the exhibition represent all these schools and regions. The majority of the items were mass-produced. They were made for ordinary commissioners, as well as for small churches and chapels. However, they possess a special charm and heartfelt naivety. This mass production of icons created a cultural environment which made it possible for the traditions of Byzantine art to survive through the centuries and to remain, to this day, an inspiration for modern icon-painters, both in Greece and in Russia.

From ancient, worm-eaten wood panels the stern faces of Orthodox saints who were martyred for their Christian faith look down on us. A pensive gaze of the Virgin seems to go straight through the onlooker - she can see things hidden from mere mortals. The Infant Christ clings to the face of His Mother, like any child would - as if He was not destined to suffer the Passion for the salvation of the entire humankind. When looking at these ancient icons, we should note not so much the exterior beauty of their artwork as their main purpose - to inspire men with Faith, Hope and Charity.

The exhibition in St Petersburg is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue in Russian and English with analytic scientific texts by Byzantinists.

In parallel, the Catalogue raisonne of the Velimezis Collection of Icons by Professor Nano Chatzidakis, under the title Icons. The Velimezis Collection (Athens, 1997) was translated and published in Russian. The catalogue has also been published, apart from Greek, in Spanish, English and German. The importance of its Russian translation is furthermore reinforced by the common religious beliefs between Greek and Russian, as well as by the close affinity among Greek, Russian and Byzantine art.

The exhibition of the Velimezis Collection in the State Hermitage Museum is the first venue in Russia. Its unique interest in combination with the successful "Velimezis Icon Collection Project", dating back to 1991, will be an important opportunity to promote Greek culture, within the framework of the activities of Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.

On the 11th September 2009 in the Council Hall, the State Hermitage Museum, will be a lecture Between East and West. Greek Icons of the 15th - 16th centuries and Unknown Early Painting by El Grecoby Nano Chatzidakis, Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology University of Ioannina, Greece.

The scientific idea of the exhibition made by Professor Nano Chatzidakis, and by Yuri Pyatnitsky, Senior Curator of the Oriental Department, the State Hermitage Museum.

The exhibition is curated by Yuri Pyatnitsky, Senior Curator of the Oriental Department, the State Hermitage Museum.

A leaflet in Russian has been compiled by Yuri Pyatnisky and published by the Hermitage Publishing House. The Web site of The State Hermitage Museum (www.hermitagemuseum.org) and the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (www.onassis.gr) will feature the exhibition.

At the press-conference

Antony S. Papadimitriou, President of the Board of Directors Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage

Yuri Pyatnitsky, Curator of the exhibition

At the ceremony of the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

Booklet of the exhibition

Catalogue of the exhibition