5.29 TS – Oscillating Between Modernity and Traditionality, Diversity and Uniformity. Reflections on the Physiognomy of Late Post–Byzantine Painting (ca. 1670–1900)

The Ottoman capture of Candia in 1669 represents a pivotal moment in Post-Byzantine art, marking the definitive end of Crete’s artistic hegemony and fragmenting production into a decentralized network of regional workshops. This reorganization of artistic centers inside the Orthodox communities in the Balkans, a phenomenon which persisted until the late 19th century, facilitated new patterns of interaction and set the stage for profound aesthetic transformation. A decisive shift crystallized around the 1730s as a distinctly westernizing current emerged within Balkan ecclesiastical art—a development that had appeared earlier, though with different characteristics, in the Ionian Islands. This artistic reorientation was fundamentally propelled by the increasingly systematic infiltration of Western European visual models, disseminated primarily through German, Flemish, Italian, and French prints, which progressively catalyzed the partial yet consequential adoption of naturalist aesthetics within Orthodox tradition. This Thematic Session proposes a nuanced examination of this artistic evolution that moves beyond conventional formalist approaches. We will critically interrogate the identity of Post-Byzantine art in its later phases, questioning the degree to which major workshop productions maintained “Byzantine” characteristics. A central objective is to integrate intellectual history into art historical analysis, particularly investigating whether the influence of theological texts like Bishop Elias Miniatis’s Didaches (“Teachings”) —itself shaped by Western homiletic traditions—constituted a phenomenon parallel to the visual appropriation of prints. Additional inquiries will address the indirect impact of Enlightenment thought on iconographic programs and examine the multifaceted role of printed ecclesiastical books in shaping Orthodox imagery through both textual content and visual models. Through this comprehensive approach, the session aims to foster a more contextual understanding of this complex era of artistic cross-fertilization and cultural negotiation in the Post-Byzantine world.