THE ORIGINS OF ELGRECO ICON PAINTING IN VENETIAN CRETE

Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) New York.

November 17, 2009 - February 27, 201

The Onassis Cultural Center will be closed on Friday, December 25th, 2009 and Friday, January 1st, 2010

The Onassis Cultural Center will present an extraordinary group of 15th and 16th century paintings, including early works by El Greco.


Curated for the Onassis Cultural Center by Dr. Anastasia Drandaki, Curator of the Byzantine Collection at the Benaki Museum, Athens, The Origins of El Greco will present 46 exceptional works from public and private collections in Greece, Europe, the United States and Canada, many of which will be traveling to the U.S. for the first time.

According to Dr. Drandaki, “The icon painters in the workshops on Crete in the 15th and 16th centuries were renowned for their skill in painting impeccable panels not only in the traditional Byzantine manner but also in a style inspired by Western models. Although a dialogue with Western painting was not new to Byzantine art, a number of special factors undoubtedly helped to encourage the immersion of Cretan artists in Western iconography and style, especially after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.” The Origins of El Greco will illuminate these fascinating developments as seen in rare panel paintings that span the course of two centuries.


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Doménikos Theotokópoulos - El Greco (1541 – April 7, 1614) born in 1541 in northern Crete (labdanum area).