: "From Byzantium to Modern Greece: Hellenic Art in Adversity,
1453-1830" an exhibition of treasures from the Benaki Museum,
opens at the Onassis Cultural Center on December 15, and will
examine the evolution of Hellenic art and culture during four
centuries of tumultuous change under Venetian and Ottoman
occupation.
More than 116 works from all sectors of artistic production -
icons, painting, woodcarving, metalwork, embroidery, costumes,
jewelry, and pottery - will present a comprehensive visual
history of Hellenic culture from the fall of Byzantium in 1453 to
the founding of the modern Greek state in 1830.
The Benaki Museum's collection of Hellenic art and antiquities
from the Neolithic Age to the Twentieth Century contains 33,000
rare and exquisite objects. Highlights from this collection, such
as wood-carved bed panels, painted chests, publications and a
signed icon by El Greco, will make up "From Byzantium to Modern
Greece," which will run until May 6.
The exhibition will be divided into seven sections that explore
the historic and socioeconomic context of the period, the
spiritual and artistic legacy of the Orthodox Church, the
importance of home and decorative arts, the adornment of women,
the depictions of Greece by foreign travelers, and the Greek
Enlightenment and founding of the modern Greek state.
Beginning in the Fifteenth Century, the Ottoman Empire and the
Republic of Venice battled for control of the Greek islands and
coastal territories, a struggle that culminated in the partial
destruction of the Parthenon in 1687. This infamous attack will
be seen in a rare Seventeenth Century watercolor that shows the
temple burning after a Venetian bomb hit the Parthenon's roof,
igniting the cache of gunpowder that the Ottoman Turks had stored
inside.
In the following two centuries, as powers from the East and West
continued to sail the Aegean and Ionian seas, the Greek shipping
trade grew, leading to economic development, improved living
conditions in the islands and the introduction of Western ideas.
These changes will be seen in scenes of nautical life and
testimonies of religious beliefs and practices for the protection
of seafarers.
The Orthodox Church - which, after the fall of the Byzantine
Empire, had served as Greece's main social, cultural and
political institution, and had formalized guidelines for artistic
production - was the only organization to retain broad cultural
significance. While religious art preserved its Byzantine
influence, it began to incorporate Eastern and Western elements,
as seen in the many examples of rare gold embroidery, jewelry and
silverwork in this exhibition. Icons from the Fifteenth through
Eighteenth Centuries will reveal the cultural blending of the
Venetians, Ottomans and Byzantine Greeks. Chief among these icons
is an early work by El Greco.
In the centuries of Ottoman occupation, the home became the main
site of artistic expression. This can be seen in the delicately
carved stone fanlights and fountainheads, intricately painted
wood chests and bed panels, vivid ceramics and ornate
embroideries that highlight the cultural sophistication of the
Hellenic world. The exhibition will also feature a complete
reconstruction of a bedchamber, including a rare bridal bed with
an elaborately embroidered silk canopy, sheet, pillows and
valance, and a selection of delicate ceramics.
Pendant from Patmos island, first half of the Seventeenth
Century, gold pendant in the form of a caravel with enamels and
pearls, 14 centimeters high. The Benaki Museum.
The shift toward a more personal aesthetic will be further
revealed in paintings and watercolors made by foreign travelers to
Greece in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries depicting women's
adornment and attire in cosmopolitan and rural Greece.
The foreign travelers who recorded women's attire also depicted
the Greek landscape, ancient monuments and quaint villages of the
Seventeenth through Nineteenth Centuries. Foreign artists
accompanying exploratory or military missions, as well as
Europeans on the Grand Tour, recorded the Hellenic landscapes
they saw on their travels. The detailed drawings, watercolors,
oil paintings and illustrations from travel publications that
will be featured in this exhibition depict Greece before the War
of Independence as seen through European eyes.
The late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries witnessed the
birth of the Greek Enlightenment - an intellectual movement that
combined Western liberal thought with a revival of the ancient
Hellenic spirit - and the creation of the modern Greek state in
1830. At the same time, Western artists and intellectuals
embraced Philhellenism, fueling the neoclassical and Romantic
movements in Europe and the United States. This final section
will feature publications reflecting the interests of the age;
Romantic paintings inspired by the Greek struggle; weapons of
Greek freedom fighters; and portraits of important European and
Greek cultural figures, such as Lord Byron and Rigas Feraios, a
major figure of the Greek Enlightenment.
The Onassis Cultural Center is in the Olympic Tower at 645
Fifth Avenue (entrance on 51st and 52nd Streets). For
information, 212-486-4448 or www.onassisusa.org.
