MADONNERI. — This was the name given in Venice to those painters of sacred images, for the most part of Cretan origin, who as early as the fourteenth century, but especially from the fifteenth until almost the nineteenth, worked and maintained their workshops in that city, where a flourishing Greek colony existed which, by the end of the fifteenth century, succeeded in establishing its own “school” and its own church. From there they disseminated their products in great quantities throughout the Balkan and Russian world and, to a more limited extent, in Italy itself. The last heirs of the Byzantine tradition, they debased it through the mechanical repetition of ancient schemes, in which it was rare to find anything beyond craftsmanship. And although, through contact with Italian and particularly Venetian art, they grafted new elements onto their manner and thereby justified for themselves the designation Veneto-Cretan, they rarely succeeded in assimilating them profitably.
The most typical m. was Andrea Rico da Candia, active in the late fifteenth century; in the following century the role of leader of the school was held by Michele Damasceno, and in the seventeenth century the most notable figures were Emanuele Zanfurnari and Emanuele Zane da Retimo, a poet and priest as well as an exceptionally prolific iconographer. Of greater interest, however, is the figure of Giorgio Clontza, who lived between the two centuries and who, like Teodoro Pulaki da Cidonia and the painters of the Ionian Islands at a later date, was particularly inspired by Italian Mannerism, with results of some value. Domenico Theotocopuli should also be mentioned: he was a native of Crete and, in the initial phase of his artistic activity, was closely connected with the painting of the m.,
while already interpreting it with personal flair (v. MODERATI).
In the images of these painters, the subject of the Madonna and Child initially predominated (hence the name m.), but subsequently the Saviour, the saints, and the principal scenes of the Old and New Testaments were also represented. These icons, not only in the Orthodox world but also in the Catholic West, were thought to possess a special religious value and even miraculous powers, perhaps because it was believed that they went back to archetypes of somehow prodigious origin. Above all, the tradition was strong of the portrait that s. Luke was said to have painted from life of the Madonna and sent to Theophilus. Such was the legend, but there must certainly have existed a prototype showing the Virgin in a rigid, frontal pose, supporting on her arm the Child, who blesses and holds in his left hand the scroll of the Law: this is the type known by the name ἡ Ὀβηγήτρια, from which the others derived with only slight variations (e.g., the Glicofilusa and the Eleusa, in an affectionate attitude; the Galactotrofusa, which suckles the Child; and finally the Madonna della Passione, with two half-length angels bearing the instruments of Christ’s martyrdom).
The iconography of the other images likewise generally remained tied to traditional models. Christ was for the most part represented as the blessing Saviour or as King of Kings, enthroned and wearing a mitre. The saints were naturally those most venerated in the Eastern Church. Of the Gospel, preference was given to the episodes corresponding to the “great feasts” or to those recurring in the Sunday liturgy, in conformity with the practice of the Orthodox Church of exposing for the veneration of the faithful during the sacred rites the icon referring to the Gospel passage being read or to the feast being commemorated. The religious value and use of these icons, which were also hung on the partition called the iconostasis, separating the Sancta Sanctorum from the rest of the church, therefore greatly facilitated their sale; and they are now found almost everywhere in museums, private homes, and convents. In particular, in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, the Museo nazionale of Ravenna, and in Florence; among the Greek Orthodox community in Venice; in the Byzantine, Benachi, and Loverdos Museums of Athens; in the monasteries of Patmos, Athos, and Sinai (where their production still continues); and in the museums of Moscow and Leningrad.