their client’s wishes. Many of these “Dalma-
tian school” icons in mixed Italo-Byzantine
style have considerable artistic merit, but
most are of lower artistic value, as itinerant
artists executed them in one sitting, often in
exchange for one day’s worth of meals.
The icons of Northern Greece, while show-
ing a definite awareness of the Cretan
school, exhibit a different stylistic vision. For
one thing, the clientele for the workshops of
Northern Greece was substantially different
from that available to the Cretan artists. The
Cretan painters had sophisticated clients,
Orthodox as well as Catholic, even Protes-
tant, while the northern Greek patrons of
icons living in the southern fringes of the
Balkan peninsula were less cosmopolitan
and less sophisticated. The Italianized or
hybrid style of the Cretan school hardly
suited their religious needs or societal
tastes. Therefore, icons of Northern Greece
are generally more conservative in style and
more restricted in iconographic repertoire.
around the workshops of the monasteries of
Mount Athos, developed and maintained its
own stylistic idiom, primarily characterized
by the sharp separation of the proplasmos,
the dark olive color that defines the borders
of the face, from the lighter whitish-red
strokes that give the illusion of roundness
and material substance to the saint’s face.
This style adds to the visual abstraction and
“otherworldliness” of the faces. The clothing
and dress of the saints is simpler, without the
overelaboration often seen in Cretan i cons,
resulting in greater feeling of monumentality
and hieratic appearance.
The more locally based painters of Northern
Greece often lived in distant and isolated
areas, and their icons reflect that fact. Some
of these icons are characterized by disanal-
ogous figures with larger head-to-body
proportions, and some of them are even
missing the written captions which, in Byzan-
tine iconography, normally accompany the
persons portrayed.
The school of Northern Greece, centered
Greek child’s parade vest,
embroidered with religious and
patriotic symbols, late 19th century
(Collected in Constantinople c. 1982).
The Argie & Emmanuel Tiliakos Collection of Greek Icons
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