Icon with a representation of the Entombment of Christ

The representation of the Entombment of Christ covers the icon’s abraded painted surface. Christ’s dead and almost naked body fills the centre of the composition. At his head and feet, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are preparing to lower him into the marble sarcophagus, while the Virgin stands on the scene’s vertical axis with anguish writ on her face. In the background, on the left, Golgotha with the three crosses on its top. Emmanuel Tzanes, who signs the picture bottom right “ΧΕΙΡ / ΕΜΜΑΝΟΥΗΛ / ΤΟΥ ΙΕΡΕΩΣ / ΤΖΑΝΕ / αχοθ” [Hand of the priest Emmanuel Tzanes, 1679], is one of the first generation of Cretan painters who left Crete after the Ottoman conquest of the island. He lived on Corfu first, then moved to Venice. He draws his models from both the great Cretan painters of the 15th and 16th centuries and from Western art, through Flemish engravings. Although Tzanes has maintained some links with the Byzantine tradition (the golden background, the sarcophagus’ inverted perspective, the depiction of mountains, the folds in the drapery), the Venetian influence is evident, especially in the painterly rendering of Christ and Nicodemus’ flesh, and in the use of bold colours.

PUBLICATION
Skampavias K. 2007. Catalogue no. 185, in Skampavias K.—Chatzidakis N. (eds), Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum.Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art, Athens, 344–347.