Greek Madonnas and Venetian Fashion

Abstract

In the second half of the fourteenth century, a large number of icons, made by Greek or Palaiologan-trained artists working in either Venice or Crete, enjoyed a wide circulation in the Mediterranean. They were conspicuous for certain distinctive and unconventional features: though faithful to Byzantine pictorial practices, they displayed the Virgin Mary wearing exuberantly ornamented “Gothic” garments, stemming from the set of forms established by Paolo Veneziano and his followers. This paper investigates the ways in which features associated with contemporary Venetian painting were selected, appropriated, transformed, and adapted to the language of Byzantine icons.