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An icon of Saint Catherine
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Description
An icon of Saint Catherine
Cretan, 17th century
shown seated on a cushion on an elaborate throne, the princess wears a red tunic embroidered in gold, her royal lorus in gold and painted with jewels, her ermine-lined blue cloak decorated with the bicephalous eagle, vested in a crown, her hair gathered within a gold-embroidered red snood; she holds a cross in her left hand which rests upon the nailed wheel of her martyrdom, and a palm branch in her right; an open book on the decorative lectern which is embellished with allegorical female figures in gold monochrome, personifying the sciences; the closed volumes below support an unfurled scroll inscribed in Greek with a philosophical maxim, to the right, further volumes support an astronomical globe; gilt ground
89 by 70 cm., 35 by 27 1/2 in.
The reverse applied with two paper labels. One inscribed Byzantine, St Catherine, Owner M. Sterner, '69. The other a Massachusetts exhibition label partially effaced.
The offered icon should be placed within a well known group of panels that reproduce the same Italianate model, the most notable of which are by the 17th century Cretan painters Jeremias Palladas. Silvestros Theocharis and Emmanuel Lombardos. The example by Palladas (1612), is generally accepted as the earliest. (See Kurt Weitzmann, Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Palestine, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No.28, 1974, p.54, pl.53).
Iconographically, our panel relates most closely to three icons: A panel in the Benaki Museum by Lombardos (1627). (See catalogue Icons of Cretan Art, Heraklion 1993, No.195.) Another by a contemporary of Palladas in the Hellenic Institute, Venice. (See Nano Chatzidakis, From Candia to Venice - Greek Icons in Italy 15th-16th Centuries, Athens 1993, No.44, p.178.) And an icon from the Velimezis Collection, dated to the second quarter of the 17th century. (See Nano Chatzidakis, Icons - The Velimezis Collection, Athens 1998, No.26, pp.258-9.)
Stylistically however, the offered panel differs from these and bears a closer relationship to two icons by Victor from the second half of the 17th century: One in the Pinacoteca, Vicenza, (see N. Chatzidakis, 1993 Op cit, No.46, pp.182-3.) The other in the Byzantine Museum, (see Icons of the Cretan School, No.215.) Both these panels exhibit the same meticulous attention to detail as our panel and also use the scroll device, which in their case is used to carry the signature of the painter.
Cretan, 17th century
shown seated on a cushion on an elaborate throne, the princess wears a red tunic embroidered in gold, her royal lorus in gold and painted with jewels, her ermine-lined blue cloak decorated with the bicephalous eagle, vested in a crown, her hair gathered within a gold-embroidered red snood; she holds a cross in her left hand which rests upon the nailed wheel of her martyrdom, and a palm branch in her right; an open book on the decorative lectern which is embellished with allegorical female figures in gold monochrome, personifying the sciences; the closed volumes below support an unfurled scroll inscribed in Greek with a philosophical maxim, to the right, further volumes support an astronomical globe; gilt ground
89 by 70 cm., 35 by 27 1/2 in.
The reverse applied with two paper labels. One inscribed Byzantine, St Catherine, Owner M. Sterner, '69. The other a Massachusetts exhibition label partially effaced.
The offered icon should be placed within a well known group of panels that reproduce the same Italianate model, the most notable of which are by the 17th century Cretan painters Jeremias Palladas. Silvestros Theocharis and Emmanuel Lombardos. The example by Palladas (1612), is generally accepted as the earliest. (See Kurt Weitzmann, Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Palestine, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No.28, 1974, p.54, pl.53).
Iconographically, our panel relates most closely to three icons: A panel in the Benaki Museum by Lombardos (1627). (See catalogue Icons of Cretan Art, Heraklion 1993, No.195.) Another by a contemporary of Palladas in the Hellenic Institute, Venice. (See Nano Chatzidakis, From Candia to Venice - Greek Icons in Italy 15th-16th Centuries, Athens 1993, No.44, p.178.) And an icon from the Velimezis Collection, dated to the second quarter of the 17th century. (See Nano Chatzidakis, Icons - The Velimezis Collection, Athens 1998, No.26, pp.258-9.)
Stylistically however, the offered panel differs from these and bears a closer relationship to two icons by Victor from the second half of the 17th century: One in the Pinacoteca, Vicenza, (see N. Chatzidakis, 1993 Op cit, No.46, pp.182-3.) The other in the Byzantine Museum, (see Icons of the Cretan School, No.215.) Both these panels exhibit the same meticulous attention to detail as our panel and also use the scroll device, which in their case is used to carry the signature of the painter.