The "Madre della Consolazione" icon in the Museum of Torcello / Venice and the relation of Russian post Byzantine iconography to Italian Renaissance painting

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2019 in the subject Art - History of Art, grade: excellent, , language: English, abstract: The only mentioning of this Madre della Consolazione icon to the moment belongs to A. Rizzi who attributes it to any anonymous Cretan-Venetian painter of the 16th c. However, many iconographic and stylistic anomalies examined in this study, make such attribution inacceptable. As well inacceptable result some recent publications trying to suggest that the author of this iconographic type should be the Greek icon painter Nikolaos Zafouris and that his devotional paintings destined to Latin clientele should be icons. The objectives of the actual revision of these positions are to contribute for a better distinguishing among originals, copies, and replica of the Madre della Consolazione representations known to the moment, and to complete knowledge of existing sources and data regarding the Orthodox and Italian variants of this Mother of God type as regards religious history, names, iconographic prototypes and sub-variants. The exploration is limited to the microscopic and photographic investigation of the technical-technological aspects of the original. Its guide line is the impact of the post-byzantine painting on other artistic traditions as well as the reverse process, the westernization of the Orthodox painting, and namely: what determined the dynamic of the material & technical upgrading, and if the technical-technological characteristics have any relation to the place of making and to the desired significance of the image; how did traditional egg tempera evolve through mixed techniques to oil painting and how did this influence the plastic construction of the imagery; how was employed the technical knowledge going back to ancient sources.

Autorentext

1989: PhD in Byzantine and post Byzantine art history awarded by the University Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne/INALCO. 1983-6: PhD fellowship /scientific researcher in Medieval Art History of the Balkans at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 1982: M.Sc degree in art history from the Academy of Fine Arts - Sofia. Author of three books and 25 publications on orthodox cultural heritage in Russian, French, German, Italian, English and Bulgarian, and of 27 on modern art and industrial design in Bulgarian: http://abilitazione.miur.it/public/viewCvcandidato.php?id_dom=54787 Conferences on the iconographical schools and collections of orthodox art. Lecturer at professional training courses on historic techniques and materials in oriental painting and gilding. Collaboration for the restoration of important Byzantine mosaics, of wall and easel paintings, furniture, Venetian lacquers, casein tempera ceilings, silver covers. Hundreds of expertises on eastern European ancient and modern artefacts. Top market achievement: £ 3 milliards (Venice 1999) for 16 icons by T. Poulakis Field research on the Levantine and Alpine flora on "Useful plant resources in crafts and industry". Comments to written sources on chemistry of ancient inks, tanned leather, dyed and printed textiles. Reconstruction of ancient technical recipes and development of materials of plant origin for arts&craft techniques, conservation and restoration: pigments, varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, inks, surface-active agents, solvents, biocides, impregnation and consolidation substances for mortars and paintings on different supports, for conservation of historic textiles, gildings and of gilt leather. Research on the emulsion stabilizers and natural pigments used in Europe and Africa (Ethiopia and Somalia particularly). Hundreds of works realized in varieties of tempera; in encaustic and casein painting; in emulsions, oil or in mixed techniques on different supports. Designs. Lacquers. Paintings and prints on silk. Authentic art copies. Design and realization of furniture. Conservation and restoration of glass, paper, textiles, silver, mosaics, leather. Art expert by the Commercial Chambre and the Court of Venice. Member of CISBI - Ca' Foscari (Venice). Network with COST/COSCH, Art-Conservation.Ru, Orbis Aethiopicus, etc. Awarded the art-con.ru ( "Best Investigation in Conservation and Restoration ( )" Prize for the year 2012, http://art-con.ru/node/1469