Skip to content
Skip to main content
header search
ahihi OpenLearn
OpenLearn
Menu
sticky search

About this free course

Become an OU student

Share this free course

Course content Course content
The Byzantine icon
The Byzantine icon

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

More free courses

1 ‘Reading’ an icon: Byzantine iconography and Gospel narrative

Watch the following video, in which Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou examines a Cretan panel painting (icon), produced on the island during the period it was under Venetian rule, that copies the work of a famous Cretan master, Michael Damaskinos.

Watching the video closely will help you to consolidate the material explored in Week 1. In particular, the section between 4:53–9.45 analyses the relationship between iconography and Gospel narrative in some detail.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1 Open Arts Object: Noli me Tangere, Cretan Orthodox Icon, late 16th/early 17th century, British Museum, London.
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript | Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 1 Open Arts Object: Noli me Tangere, Cretan Orthodox Icon, late 16th/early 17th century, British Museum, London.

ANGELIKI LYMBEROPOULOU
Hello, I am Angeliki Lymberopoulou. I am a senior lecturer in art history at The Open University, and I specialise on Venetian Crete. Basically, I’m a Byzantine art historian and archaeologist, and I examine the artistic production on the island of Crete, which took place between 1211 and 1669.
During that period, the island of Crete was under the Venetians. Basically, under Venetian domination. However, the coexistence between the Venetians and the native Cretans proved to be very fruitful from an artistic point of view. We have wonderful material – monumental, decoration, icons – and I am extremely lucky and privileged to be part of this research field.
So today, to make you feel part of this privilege, Venetian Crete artistic production, I have chosen a wonderful icon from that period to discuss with you and analyse. The object I will be discussing is an icon. For orthodoxy, icons are the ultimate way of communicating with divinity and heaven above.
Icons function as a window that transports the faithful to the spiritual world by allowing the viewer to visualise the unseen and the immaterial. Icons can be represented in any medium – frescoes, mosaics, ivories, manuscripts, panel paintings. Originally, icons were not specifically associated with a particular medium. However, in the present day, when we say ‘icon’, we usually identify it with panel paintings. And indeed, today, the object we will be discussing, it’s an icon painted on panel.
This icon was produced on Crete after the fall of Constantinople, present day Istanbul, to the Ottomans in 1453, and therefore belongs to a period generally known as post-Byzantine. Basically, this period identifies Byzantine artistic production that took place after the loss of the empire in areas that had avoided Ottoman expansion by being under Venetian domination, just like the island of Crete at the time.
Such icons are known as ‘hybrid icons’ or ‘bilingual icons’ because they combine elements from Byzantine artistic production and Western artistic production to reflect the interaction between the two populations living together on the island of Crete for four and a half centuries. The icon is painted on panel made of cypress wood. Cypress wood was the most common wood in use on Crete.
Its popularity is not only because it was found in abundance on the island at the time, but also because it has excellent qualities for panel painting, such as strength, resistance to warping, resistance to splitting, its hardness, and also it is very easy to cut and to carve.
The icon we examine measures 62 by 47 centimetres, which is relatively small. However, it is relatively heavy. It is not light at all, as I have personally experienced when I was examining it. The icon copies an original panel painting produced and signed by the painter Michael Damaskinos.
Michael Damaskinos was a Cretan painter active in the 16th century in the capital of Venetian Crete, Candia. He was the older contemporary of a painter called Domenikos Theotokopoulos, whom you probably know better as ‘El Greco’.
Damaskinos’ fame was rather big at the time he was alive. The Greco fraternity in Venice invited Damaskinos all the way from Candia to Venice to specifically decorate the Greek church of San Giorgio dei Greci, Saint George of the Greeks.
Now, the icon we examine, we do not know who painted it because, in general, Byzantine art does not have eponymous artists. Most of the Byzantine artists remain anonymous to this day. We’re rather lucky to have names like Damaskinos, El Greco, and other big names from the period because of the archives in Venice. The icon represents various stages of the announcement of Christ’s resurrection as narrated in all four gospels, organised in six successive levels and accompanied by Greek inscriptions.
In the first level, we see the Noli Me Tangere scene, which is known as ‘Touch Me Not’. The resurrected Christ tells Mary Magdalene, to whom he has just appeared, not to touch him, according to the narrative we find in John’s Gospel, chapter 20, paragraph 17. Christ is depicted in a typical Byzantine fashion, wearing a himation in gold chrysography. Basically, you can see the gold striations all over his wonderful mantle. While the kneeling Mary, with her long uncovered hair, is inspired from Western iconography. So you can see the juxtaposition. Byzantine iconography and Western iconography in the same scene.
In the second level, to the left, we see the scene of the ‘All Hail to the Myrrhbearers’, named after Christ meeting and greeting with two of the women who had gone to his tomb to anoint his dead body with spices. Of course, they found his tomb empty because Christ had already been resurrected. And then, on the way back, the resurrected Christ met them and greeted them. And this incident is narrated in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28, paragraph 1. Now, this scene follows the Byzantine iconographic tradition. It’s what we call ‘pure’, in inverted commas, Byzantine iconography. No Western elements here whatsoever.
In the third level, to the left, the painter returns to the narrative we have in John’s Gospel, chapter 20, paragraphs 11 to 13, to depict a scene that precedes the scene depicted in the foreground. As we saw in the foreground we have the ‘Touch Me Not’, where Magdalene already meets with Christ. However, in that level, in the third level, Mary Magdalene approaches Christ’s tomb, where she finds two angels sitting on it, asking her why she’s crying. Now, Magdalene’s body movement is inspired by similar figures appearing in the works of Titian and Veronese. Here, however, the most important figure is the cross-legged figure of the angel we see in the foreground. Cross-legged figures, just like the angel depicted here, are not found in Byzantine art, and they’re also exceedingly rare in Western art too. However, Michelangelo – the great Michelangelo – in his Sistine Chapel painted the Erythraean Sibyl sitting like that, cross-legged, and it’s highly likely that Michael Damaskinos saw a reproduction of Michelangelo’s Erythraean Sibyl and decided to copy it in his original icon. Don’t forget also that Michelangelo-- it’s Michael Damaskinos kind of wanting to partake of the fame of the great artist. So he does something very unique for a Byzantine icon. He takes a cross-legged figure and puts it in a context we’ve never seen before.
In the fourth level, to the right, the scene is based in St. Mark’s narrative, chapter 16, paragraphs 1 to 8, where the three Marys, headed by the Magdalene, arrive at Christ’s tomb to anoint his body with myrrh. There, an angel informs them that Christ has been resurrected. While the angel resembles Byzantine models, figures similar to the three Marys are encountered in the works by Venetian master Tintoretto. So again, we have here a mixture. Byzantine elements with Western elements producing a scene that would have been equally well-received by both Venetian Catholics and Greek Orthodox.
In the fifth level, to the right, we see Christ’s empty tomb only with his shroud, as described in Luke, chapter 24, paragraph 12. Three crosses at the left suggest that the crucified bodies have been removed, while at the sixth and final level the city of Jerusalem is depicted. One could argue that the icon can be read from the foreground to the background as a flashback through time, or we can also read it from the background to the foreground as a narrative of events that brings us to the main focal image Mary Magdalene and the resurrected Christ.
Based on the main theme of the icon, which is the resurrected Christ, it is highly likely that the icon is connected directly to Easter and to the related liturgy. The original icon painted by Damaskinos is actually rather big, and we can safely assume that it was part of a church. However, this icon we examine here, despite the fact that it’s heavy, it’s small, which probably suggests that it would have been part of a private household. The combination of Byzantine iconography with Western elements on the icon reflects the coexistence, cohabitation, and cultural dialogue between the Venetians and the Cretans on the island. Now, you have to remember that the Venetians were Roman Catholic, while the Cretans were Greek Orthodox. Both of the Christian persuasion, but they regarded each other suspiciously. They thought that the other group was heretical. Despite that, the fact that we have artistic production from the island, such as this icon, tells us that these two groups managed to put their differences aside and create something that reflects both cultures and religious persuasion. This icon is a historic example that points to mutual acceptance and respect between different cultures and religions, which is a very useful lesson across time.
This icon was bought on Crete, as far as we know, and then it was brought back to England, where it was donated in the 1920s at the National Gallery in London. And then, sometime in the 1990s, it was passed from the National Gallery to the British Museum, where you can still see it today.
End transcript: Video 1 Open Arts Object: Noli me Tangere, Cretan Orthodox Icon, late 16th/early 17th century, British Museum, London.
Download
Video 1 Open Arts Object: Noli me Tangere, Cretan Orthodox Icon, late 16th/early 17th century, British Museum, London.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

The icon is organised in six successive levels, and accompanied by Greek inscriptions. For a detailed analysis, see Lymberopoulou, 2011, p. 189-194. In brief, the inscriptions on the icon and the relevant Gospel narratives are as follows:

First level:

The Noli Me Tangere (‘Touch Me Not’) is depicted. The scene is based on Saint John’s Gospel 20:17 ‘ΜΑΡΙΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΥ ΑΠΤΟΥ’ (‘Touch Me Not’).

Christ addresses Mary Magdalene, who is depicted kneeling to the left, ‘ΓΥΝΑΙ ΤΙ ΚΛΑΙΕΙΣ; ΤΙΝΑ ΖΗΤΕΙΣ’ (‘Woman why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?’, John 20:15). In her turn, the Magdalene, before she recognizes Christ, asks him ‘ΚΥΡΙΕ ΕΙ ΣΥ ΕΒΑΣΤΑΣΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΝ, ΕΙΠΕ ΜΟΙ ΠΟΥ ΕΘΗΚΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΝ ΚΑΓΩ ΑΥΤΟΝ ΑΡΩ’ (‘Sir, if you have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away’, John 20:15). Once she realises that Christ is standing before her, she addresses him as ‘ΡΑΒΟΥΝΙ’ (‘Rabboni; which is to say, Master’, John 20:16).

Second level:

To the left, the scene of the ‘ΧΑΙΡΕ ΤΩΝ ΜΥΡΟΦΟΡΩΝ’ is depicted (‘All Hail to the Myrrhbearers’). This scene is named after the greeting Christ used to address the two Marys, depicted here to the right. According to Matthew’s Gospel 28:9, Christ met the two Marys (named as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary in Matthew 28:1) on their way back from Christ’s empty sepulchre, where they were informed by an angel that Christ had risen.

Third level:

To the left, the painter returns to John’s Gospel (20:11–13) to depict a scene which chronologically precedes the Touch Me Not episode: the recognisable figure of the Magdalene, with the rich hair and the red cloak, arrives at Christ’s Tomb – ‘ΜΑΡΙΑ ΔΕ ΕΙΣΤΗΚΕΙ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΩ ΜΝΗΝΕΙΩ ΚΛΑΙΟΥΣΑ ΕΞΩ’ (‘But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping’, John 20:11). Magdalene faces two angels, who are sitting on the tomb. One sits cross-legged, pointing with his right hand at the empty shroud clothes, while the second angel points also with his right hand upwards, to Heaven; the inscription reads: ‘ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΟΥΣΙΝ ΑΥΤΗ ΕΚΕΙΝΟΙ ΓΥΝΑΙ ΤΙ ΚΛΑΙΕΙΣ’ (‘And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?’, John 20:13).

Fourth level:

The three Marys, headed by the Magdalene, arrive at the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with myrrh, where an angel informs them that Jesus has resurrected: ‘ΜΗΝ ΕΚΘΑΜΒΕΙΣΘΕ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ ΖΗΤΕΙΤΕ ΤΟΝ ΝΑΖΑΡΗΝΟΝ ΤΟΝ ΕΣΤΑΥΡΩΜΕΝΟΝ’ (‘Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified’, Mark 16:6). With his right hand he points at the empty tomb, on which he is sitting and he informs them: ‘ΙΔΕ Ο ΤΟΠΟΣ ΟΠΟΥ ΕΘΗΚΑΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ’ (‘behold the place where they laid him’, Mark 16:6).

Fifth level:

It shows the sepulchre with Christ’s empty clothes, mentioned in Luke’s Gospel (24:12).

Sixth level:

On the left side are the three crosses standing at Golgotha. Technical examination has uncovered traces that could be interpreted as a ladder leaning against the middle cross, alluding to the Deposition, as narrated in the Gospels of Mark 15:46 and Luke 23:53.

Between the two mountains ‘ΜΑΡΙΑ Η ΜΑΓΔΑΛΗΝΗΚΑΙ ΜΑΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΙΑΚΩΒΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΣΑΛΩΜΗ ΗΓΟΡΑΣΑΝ ΑΡΩΜΑΤΑ ΙΝΑ ΕΛΘΟΥΣΑΙ ΑΛΕΙΨΩΣΙΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ’ (‘Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him’, Mark 16:1; technical analysis of the icon has revealed that this is a later addition, which nevertheless draws from the Gospel narrative).