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An Early Cretan Ιcon of the Entry into Jerusalem at Leucas (pl. 115-122)

Articles

• Βοκοτόπουλος, Παναγιώτης Λ.
• ΒΟΚΟΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ, Παναγιώτης Λ.

A fine icon of the Entry into Jerusalem (PL 115, 117, 119, 122),which is kept in Leucas and may be attributed to a Cretan workshopof the third quarter of the 15th cent., presents several iconographicalpeculiarities. Christ and the apostles are depicted on the right side ofthe icon and the Jews on the left one. The apostles are partly hiddenbehind the hillside. One of the apostles touches the back of the ass.Finally a shaven man, standing at the far left of the group of Jews,turns his face away for no apparent reason.The same variant of the Entry into Jerusalem is to be found in sevenmore icons and two frescoes. The oldest of these representations is thebeautiful panel of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute atWilliamstown, Massachusetts, which the author attributes to a Constantinopolitan workshop and dates to the end of the 14th or the first quarterof the 15th cent. (PI. 116, 118). The shaven Jew is talking here with twomiddle-aged men, who have been omitted, as well as the child accompanying him, from all later examples of this variant; the presence inthe Leucas icon of the man, who turns his face away, is thus explained.Another feature of this panel is the inclusion of a miniature building atthe lower right-hand corner; such buildings occur in 14th and 15thcentury representations of the Entry into Jerusalem. All the other iconsare later than the Leucas one. The only published one is the largepanel belonging to the Church of the Chrysaliniotissa at Nicosia, whichhas been dated to the 16th cent. The other icons are kept in Sinai (PI.121), Athens, Zante (PI. 120, 122) and Crete, and may be dated between the second half of the 16th and the beginning of the 18th cent.Both frescoes repeating our variant are the work of Xenos Digenis,an artist from the Morea who had visited Crete before painting themη the late 15th century. To sum up : The Leucas panel represents a rare variant of the Entryinto Jerusalem, which was probably created in Constantinople in thelate Paleologue period and enjoyed moderate success mainly in iconsof the Cretan school. In Post-Byzantine representations the persons atthe left end of the group of Jews and the miniature building are omitted;this indicates that from the mid-15th cent, onwards painters were copying not a Paleologue model but Early Cretan versions of this theme,such as the Leucas icon. The only fresco painter to adopt our variantwas Xenos Digenis, who probably became acquainted with it duringhis sojourn in Crete.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4553
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.882