Italo-Byzantine

Madonna and Child, Berlinghiero, c. 1230, tempera on wood, with gold ground, Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]

Italo-Byzantine is a style term in art history, mostly used for medieval paintings produced in Italy under heavy influence from Byzantine art.[2] It initially covers religious paintings copying or imitating the standard Byzantine icon types, but painted by artists without a training in Byzantine techniques. These are versions of Byzantine icons, most of the Madonna and Child, but also of other subjects; essentially they introduced the relatively small portable painting with a frame to Western Europe. Very often they are on a gold ground. It was the dominant style in Italian painting until the end of the 13th century, when Cimabue and Giotto began to take Italian, or at least Florentine, painting into new territory. But the style continued until the 15th century and beyond in some areas and contexts.[3]

Maniera greca ("Greek style/manner") was the Italian term used at the time, and by Vasari and others; it is one of the first post-classical European terms for style in art.[4] Vasari was no admirer, defining the Renaissance as a rejection of "that clumsy Greek style" ("quella greca goffa maniera"); other Renaissance writers were similarly critical.[5]

This also covered actual Byzantine icons in Italy; by the Renaissance these were imported on a large scale from Crete, then a Venetian possession. Especially in later periods, the terms also cover paintings done in Italy by Greek or Greek-trained artists; some of these are difficult to distinguish from works of the Cretan School, the main source of Greek imports to Europe.[6] In the mid-20th century, many of these were attributed to Venetian Dalmatia, which is now less popular among scholars.[7]

Madonna and Child, with Annunciation, Flagellation & Crucifixion, mid-13th century

According to John Steer, "down to the thirteenth century ... all Italian local schools [of painting] were provincial variants of the central Byzantine tradition".[8] Most of the artists of Italo-Byzantine paintings are unknown, though we know some facts about later transitional figures such as Coppo di Marcovaldo in Florence (active mid-13th century),[9] and Berlinghiero of Lucca (active c. 1228–42).[10] The gold ground style encouraged strong outlines in the painted shapes, and "figures are formed out of abstract but expressive shapes designed to identify various body parts or items of clothing while creating beautiful patterns."[11]

  1. ^ Christiansen
  2. ^ Drandaki, 41
  3. ^ Drandaki, 39–41, 48–51
  4. ^ Drandaki, 39–41
  5. ^ Voulgaropoulou, 201–203; Omissi, Adrastos, "Byzantium and Italian Renaissance Art"; Vasari, "Life of Giotto"[permanent dead link‍]: "Là dove venuto, in poco tempo, aiutato dalla natura et ammaestrato da Cimabue, non solo pareggiò il fanciullo la maniera del maestro suo, ma divenne così buono imitatore della natura che sbandì affatto quella goffa maniera greca, e risuscitò la moderna e buona arte della pittura, introducendo il ritrarre bene di naturale le persone vive, il che più di dugento anni non s'era usato; e se pure si era provato qualcuno, come si è detto di sopra, non gli era ciò riuscito molto felicemente né così bene a un pezzo come a Giotto."
  6. ^ Voulgaropoulou, 212
  7. ^ Bacci, 78–79
  8. ^ Steer, 11
  9. ^ Boskovits et al., 112–125
  10. ^ Christiansen
  11. ^ Milk Mac Farland, Joanna, "Florence in the Late Gothic period, an introduction", Khan Academy, accessed 8 April 2021