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Campbell, Sheila, Winston Black, Sheila Campbell, Nerida Newbigin, and Domenico Pietropaolo. A 16th Century Italo-Byzantine Cross
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| Title: | A 16th Century Italo-Byzantine Cross | | Series: | Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 32 | | Availability: | In Press | | Publisher: | Gorgias Press |
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| Edited by Sheila Campbell | | Contribution by Winston Black | | Contribution by Sheila Campbell | | Contribution by Nerida Newbigin | | Contribution by Domenico Pietropaolo | | ISBN: | 978-1-4632-0163-0 | | Availability: | In Press | | Language: | English | | Format: | Hardback, Black, 6 x 9 in |
This cross, dated by its box to the sixteenth century, is a product of
the blending of two cultures. Venice in the mid to late fifteen hundreds
was a mixture of Italian culture, intermingled with a large Greek
population, thanks to the Ottoman invasions which forced many Greeks to
emigrate. The cross which forms the subject of this study contains a
series of tiny figured panels, each one the size of a thirty-five
millimetre slide. The imagery on these panels is fairly standard
Christian iconography, but where we might expect the orthodox form, for
example the Anastasis, which is the imagery of Christ breaking down the
gates of Hell, we have instead the western imagery of the Resurrection
showing a tomb and the sleeping soldiers. There are inscriptions on some
of the panels, mostly in Latin, but sometimes lapsing into transcribed
Greek. The purpose made box which protects the cross is made up of
reused pages of a manuscript, a law text used in the schools of Venice.
By tracing the use of this text we can arrive at location and a date for
the box and by extension for the cross. By comparison with other signed
examples, we can identify the carver who made the cross and make some
speculations about his life, and how he and the art works which he made
are reflective of this hybrid culture. The type of cross seems to be one
which is developed for personal, rather than liturgical use, and the
most obvious explanation seems to be that it was intended for private
meditation on the Passion Story.
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| | Campbell, Sheila, Winston Black, Sheila Campbell, Nerida Newbigin, and Domenico Pietropaolo. A 16th Century Italo-Byzantine Cross | | ISBN: | 978-1-4632-0163-0 | | Weight: | 1 LBS. | | Price: | $108.25 | |
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