Αποστολική Διακονία της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος

1.A major exhibition in Rome: Post-Byzantium: The Greek Renaissance

After its successful presentation in the US, the exhibition "Post-Byzantium: The Greek Renaissance" travels to Rome, Italy, where it is presented (until September 7) at the Musei Capitolini. The exhibition showcases 54 masterpieces that highlight the range and influence of the Byzantine tradition after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the first half of the 19th century. All the exhibits come rom The Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens.
Post-Byzantium, produced by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, is co-organized by the Greek Embassy in Rome and the Municipality of the Italian capital city. It is grouped into three thematic sections, including Icons, Golden Embroidered Textiles, and The Flourishing of Minor Arts.

Icons
Icons, the largest section, is divided into sections from Constantinople-Crete, Italian-Cretan Works, Cretan Maistors, and Wall Paintings. The emphasis on different geographical areas reflects a historical moment in the spread of flourishing Post-Byzantine culture, which took place in all parts of the former empire. Men of letters and artists had begun gathering in Italy long before the Fall of the Empire, and after the Fall, Venice came to be known as 'the second Byzantium'.

Golden Embroidered Textiles and The Flourishing of Minor Arts
Golden Embroidered Textiles presents a series of priests' garments, elaborately embroidered in the signature decorative Byzantine style. This section also includes an 18th century epitaphios, a type of embroidery that depicts Christ's bier and is common in Orthodox iconography.
The Flourishing of Minor Arts, which includes art of gold and silver, enamels, filigrees, and carved wooden crosses.

Post-Byzantium era and art
Traditionally, art historians have focused their celebration of these centuries on the artistic developments and influences of the Renaissance in Western Europe, while the study of Byzantine art has often left off with the collapse of the Empire in the East.

Post-Byzantium illuminates the persistence of the highly influential Byzantine style through this political change and for centuries afterwards. The pervasive strength of Byzantine culture meant that its artistic tradition continued to flourish after the disbanding of the Empire - a "Byzantium after Byzantium," in effect a Greek renaissance.
Furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church, which served as a cohesive social and cultural institution, subsequently formalized many of the guidelines for artistic production in reverence for the Church's teachings and theological perspectives.
Sculpture, architecture, and particularly painting in the classic Byzantine style remained widespread in the world after the Fall. Byzantine artists and artisans from Crete, the Ionian Islands, Venice, and the Ottoman-held Central Greece and Asia Minor continued to work in communities that were far flung across the former empire.
Although many of these artists were not celebrated as individual geniuses, subsequent study of Post-Byzantium has identified a number of them as unqualified masters of their genres.
The exhibition "Post-Byzantium: The Greek Renaissance" is hosted at Rome's Musei Capitolini under the title "Glimpses of Byzantium." From November 2002 to February 2003 it had been presented in New York and that was the first time that the precious exhibits ever left Greece.HB

2. Icons' Dialogue: Icon painting exhibition at the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens

Icons' Dialogue is the titled of the exhibition accomodated at the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, for the period July-August 2003. The exhibition includes religious paintings coming from Greece, Italy, Spain and Finland. All four countries present representative samples of religious painting they developed from the 15th century till today.

The exhibition is organized by the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art of the Technological Education Institute of Athens, Como's Academy of Fine Arts "Aldo Galli," the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, the Valamo Art Conservation Institute in Finland, the University of Westminster, the Greek Section of ICOMOS and the Yayannos Gallery.
The exhibition includes religious paintings that cover the thematic units of the "Birth," the "Crucifixion" and the "Ressurection" of Christ. It takes place in the context of "diARTgnosis" action plan, which is in turn part of the European programme "Culture 2000." The participant countries in the action plan are Greece, Italy, Spain and Finland.
Each participant has developed a research activity, relevant to the aforementioned thematic units. The research was focused on the historical frame and the religious and social factors of the creation of the works, the intention of each artist and the influence of the works to the community, as well as the icon painting, the materials and painting techniques and, finally, the importance of conserving European cultural heritage.
More specifically, the Byzantine and Christian Museum exhibits 27 works from D. Loverdos Collection. The icons consist substantial samples of Ionian and Cretan painting period from the 15th to the 19th century. They certify the survival of Byzantine art, during the centuries that followed the Fall of Constantinople and give evidence on the religious artistic creation of that period.
Among them, we find works created by well-know painters, such as El Greco, Emmanouel Tzanes, Theodoros Poulakis, Nikolaos Kallergis, Michael Damascenos, Agnelos Akotantos, Nikolaos Tzafouris, Constantinos Kontaris, Elias Moskos, Georgios Klontzas, Andreas Ritzos and others.
The exhibition is chronologically supplemented with the works presented by the Department of Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art of the Technological Education Institute of Athens. The 17 selected works have been created during the last decade by six modern Greek artists: Alexandros Issaris, Apostolos Yiayiannos, Charalambos Kotsatsidis, Yiorgos Lanaras, Erato Hatzisavva and Dimitris Souliotis. The works have been exhibited again in the past and they portray themes relevant to the Passion Cycle and the symbols of the Crucifixion. Comments of the creators accompany the works.
The exhibition is accompanied by a scientific catalogue and two CD-ROMs, which include pictures of 100 icons from D. Loverdos Collection and the results of the research. Their creation and production was undertook by the Technological Education Institute of Athens and the University of Westminster. A.Z.