An Italian story
Italo-Byzantine icons: the art of the icon in Italy
The icon is no foreign art to Italy. For over a thousand years the peninsula was one of the places where Byzantine art was born, grew and was transformed: from the mosaics of Ravenna to the Madonnas of Constantinople of the South, down to the gold-ground panels from which Italian painting was born.
Ravenna, Rome and Venice
- Ravenna, the Byzantine capital of the West in the 6th century: the mosaics of San Vitale, Sant'Apollinare in Classe and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo are among the supreme masterpieces of Byzantine art.
- Rome keeps some of the oldest icons in the world: the Salus Populi Romani of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Madonna della Clemenza of Santa Maria in Trastevere, the icons of the Pantheon and Santa Maria Antiqua.
- Venice, tied to Constantinople, filled the basilica of San Marco with gold mosaics and keeps there the Nicopeia icon, the Mother of God «bringer of victory».
The Greek South
- In Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata and Sicily people prayed in Greek for centuries: Basilian monasteries, painted rock churches, the Codex Purpureus of Rossano.
- Norman Sicily in the 12th century: the mosaics of Christ Pantocrator at Cefalù and Monreale and the Palatine Chapel in Palermo.
- The abbey of Grottaferrata, near Rome, founded by Saint Nilus in 1004, still celebrates in the Byzantine rite today.
- The Italo-Albanian (Arbëreshë) communities of Calabria and Sicily, with the eparchies of Lungro and Piana degli Albanesi, preserve the liturgy and art of the icon.
From the Greek manner to today
In the 13th century Italian painting was born from the «Greek manner»: the enthroned Madonnas and painted crosses of Coppo di Marcovaldo, Cimabue and the young Duccio are icons on gold ground. Between the 15th and 18th centuries the Veneto-Cretan painters, called «madonneri», worked in Venice for Greeks and Latins alike. The 20th century saw a revival of iconography in Italy, and today Italian iconographers paint icons for churches, communities and families.
Concetta Basile belongs to this story: she paints in the traditional school of iconography, in dialogue with Italian art, for clients in Italy, Switzerland and around the world. Like every icon by Concetta Basile, it is fully gilded with 23¾ karat gold, with inscriptions in Greek or Latin, and is commissioned with an offering proportionate to the time and materials of the work.
Frequently asked questions
What is the «Greek manner»?
It is the name Vasari gave to Byzantine-influenced painting in Italy before Giotto: solemn figures on gold ground, clear lines, drapery marked with gold. It is the style of the early panels of Cimabue and Duccio.