While the religious icon had been a popular type of painting since the medieval period, a new style of icon emerged during the fifteenth century; this new icon was a type of hybrid. This new hybrid icon was a mixture of Western European and Eastern Greek and Byzantine styles while still maintaining its spiritual value. Not only did the west effect the east though, but byzantine styles had a great effect on the art of Venice; specifically in the work of Giovanni Bellini.
As a trading city and as an empire, Venice had a lot of connections to the East; one such connection was its control of the island of Crete. This, and other connections, facilitated not only the trade of goods but also the trade of ideas and techniques. Artistic ideas and the commercialization of art also flowed between the east and Venice; one popular style of painting was that of the icon. An icon is a very specific type of art; its purpose is not purely aesthetic but also of a spiritual nature.
As discussed in Angeliki Lymberopoulou’s “Audiences and Markets for Cretan Icons”, an icon is not merely a panel painting of a religious figure but it serves as a conduit to that figure and took on their sacred nature. Because of this, icons were very popular in personal devotions and in churches especially in Byzantium and for Greek Christians. This popularity spread in the fifteenth century and it became extremely common for Europeans to own Byzantine style icons and even more common for Venetians.
This western connection also caused the production of icons to take on a western style or a hybrid design for these markets. This primarily meant that byzantine style artists, in this instance Cretans, adapted their traditional styles for their consumers such as providing full length enthroned version of Mary or using Latin inscriptions. But, this transfer of ideas didn’t go only one way, there were also western makers of icons or icon like paintings that were affected by the eastern styles. One prominent example is of the Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini.
As mentioned before, Venice had an important relationship with the East; Venice both stole from and traded with the east which caused a long lasting transfer of ideas and styles in the realm of art. Rona Goffen’s “Icon and Vision: Giovanni Bellini’s Half-Length Madonnas” shows how Bellini, and most noticeably his Madonnas, represent the ways that Eastern, Byzantine and Greek, styles effected the western Italian style. Goffen explains the long history of connection with Byzantium which made eastern art not unusual, but a popular style.
Bellini used the popular motifs of this style to incorporate into his work; such motifs included Greek letters, a solemn Mary, and his use of half-length which all directly quoted Byzantine and Greek models. These details revealed the Madonnas to be icon paintings and for use in religious worship, not just for aesthetic pleasure, particularly his use of the half-length. This half-length style has a long and ancient history of referencing icons and other figures that were meant to be eternal, just as an icon is the vehicle for an eternal religious presence.
This half-length style was not as popular as the full length and enthroned Mary in Venice, a style that Bellini also used and Lymberopoulou points to as an influence on Cretan art. Goffen argues that even though Bellini used some different styles and motifs in comparison to the Byzantine style of making icons, which depended on repetition for its authenticity and spirituality, Bellini still manages to make a true icon because he is able to “render a spiritual likeness” not just a visual replica (Goffen 509).
Some of his diversions from tradition involve this use of the enthroned Madonna and other different poses and his tendency to sign his paintings; authorship was not important in the replication of icons. So, even though Bellini was not part of the direct descendants of Byzantine icon making and often differed in style, his use of some eastern motifs and traditions and the purposes behind his changes, lead to the creation of unique but still spiritually powerful icons. Both Goffen and Lymberopoulou discuss the spiritual power of icons and the wide range of their market.
Lymberpoulou focuses on the nature and tradition of the icon and how the western style was introduced to it by Europeans and Venetians painters like Bellini. Goffen focuses more on how the Eastern styles of byzantine icons effected aesthetic wants in Western painting and how Bellini used these styles to create his own hybrid style icon that nevertheless worked spiritually as any icon. These two authors are looking from different perspectives but both still show how the West and East had a dialogue of styles and traditions that affected each other in the realm of icon painting.
