Introduction to Greek Orthodox Icons During the Late-Ottoman Period: Examples from Antalya and Tokat

Abstract

The paper aims to present a selected group of 68 post-Byzantine Greek-Orthodox icons, five carved Bema doors from sanctuaries and an iconostasis epistyle, to give a general idea of their main features. These artefacts, which are dated to the 19tn and 20tn centuries, are kept in the archaeological museums of Antalya and Tokat. After the end of the so-called Cretan School, which signifies an influential iconographical and stylistical approach to the icon painting from the 15tn to the 18tn centuries, no similar major school was founded. At this time and in fact already two centuries prior numerous works with local characters and regional ideas and interpretations had occurred. These were in continuous interactive relation with one another and they also borrowed and adopted many stylistical and iconographical features and motifs from the works of late Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque. The examples from Antalya and Tokat illustrate this practice and show the likely pattern of the post-Byzantine Greek-Orthodox icon painting. Their iconographical and stylistic analysis including dating suggestions and considerations of possible origins pointed out that during the iconographical formulation of their works painters followed and adopted models and works of the middle and late Byzantine periods. They reveal at the same time, however, in the modifications of their iconography influences of the Zeitgeist, as it is in the regional painting of the time observed -there was no homogeneous development in the ex-territories of the former Byzantine Empire, also not in Asia Minor.