A painting by the famous artist of Greek origin is awaiting its return home from Belgrade: The great talent and undeniable mastery of various artistic languages – Cretan, late Renaissance, and pre-Baroque – that El Greco displays in the painting from Benkovac align completely with the assessment of his teacher and friend, Giulio Clovio.
For a long time, it was believed that there were no El Greco paintings in the region of the former Yugoslavia, although some attempted to attribute certain third-rate works to this great master. Only five or six of Domenikos Theotokopoulos’ works have survived from before his departure to Spain in 1577. The ‘Virgin with Christ and the Feasts’, the oldest icon from the Church of St. John in Benkovac, showcases the development of the master’s individual style, from the Cretan painting rules to the late Renaissance influences and the stylistic poetics of Orthodox Baroque, which is greatly anticipated in this very icon.
A Work of Religious Art
The icon, measuring 102 x 107 cm, indicates that it was intended for a church, not for private devotion. This is further confirmed by the entire composition, which consists of the central Virgin with Christ (of the Consolation type) and 12 scenes from biblical history: from the Annunciation (depicted in two fields), the Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, the Adoration of the Child, the Adoration of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, the Presentation and Circumcision, the rarely depicted Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem, to the Virgin’s Feast Days of the Nativity and Presentation, and finally the Crucifixion at the top of the icon. This complex work replaces an entire iconostasis.
An Icon Awaiting Its Return
The painting currently resides in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. Like other conserved religious art from the region, it is awaiting the creation of proper museum conditions in Benkovac for its eventual return.
The painting was created in Venice between 1572 and 1577, just before El Greco left for Spain. It was painted after Domenikos Theotokopoulos’ stay in Rome (from 1570 to 1572) and reflects the experiences he gained from Italian painters, particularly from the ‘king of miniaturists’, Giulio Clovio, who admired El Greco, considered him an exceptionally talented painter, and was his teacher. It is recorded that the young Cretan artist painted Clovio’s portrait during this time. It is known that in Venice, where El Greco lived for about ten years, he supported himself by painting and selling icons of the Virgin Mary – and the Benkovac painting is a confirmation of that fact.
A Masterpiece Confirmed
Why can we confidently claim that this icon is an El Greco work? All the pieces fit: historical data and information from the artist’s biography, as well as all the stylistic and masterful influences (from Bassano, Tintoretto, Titian, and Clovio) that El Greco absorbed in Italy. Like many Cretan artists, he adapted examples from Italian painting and engraving, adjusting them to his own stylistic, technical, and spiritual approach. El Greco used this method especially in his Venetian period works.
It could be said that without Clovio’s miniatures from the Farnese Hours, there would be no El Greco icon from Benkovac – such is the extent of the artist’s borrowing of compositions, settings, physiognomies, and backgrounds. However, El Greco’s inventive genius did not hesitate to completely reverse the order of the figures, often reducing Clovio’s multitude and narrative complexity. The Greek master focused on the essential – the power of meaning, mysticism, and the elimination of unnecessary details that may charm in a miniature but are irrelevant to an icon. Furthermore, El Greco adhered to the established types of the Cretan School, and in some scenes, all the figures were painted strictly according to the Greek Cretan technical and pictorial rules.
An Artistic Revelation
The anaturalistic approach is the main difference. While Clovio lists and describes, El Greco condenses and reduces, creating a type of visionary painting, reminiscent of an icon. This technique resonates throughout his Spanish work, despite its different themes and clientele, as it clearly relied on Orthodox spiritual and artistic concepts. As Clovio’s miniatures undoubtedly influenced El Greco’s work in the Benkovac church, they also played a significant role in his Spanish creations, serving as a starting point for numerous variations on scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
The great talent and undeniable mastery of various artistic languages – Cretan, late Renaissance, and pre-Baroque – that El Greco displays in the Benkovac painting align completely with the assessment of his teacher and friend, Giulio Clovio. Moreover, it shows the master’s deep understanding of these two approaches and his inventive power to combine them in a new form, anticipating his later works.
How Did It End Up in Benkovac?
The construction of the Benkovac church is linked to the name of a Greek man named Karacija, whose family lived in Zadar and later owned land around Benkovac. The Zadar and Orthodox communities in Dalmatia were closely connected with the powerful Greek colony in Venice, where El Greco worked during the time when the centre of the Philadelphia Metropolis was relocated to Venice under Metropolitan G. Severos. At that time, icons for Orthodox churches and monasteries in Dalmatia mostly arrived from Venice, where several top Greek painters were active. One of them, unique in his time, was El Greco.
Author of the text: Mr. Milorad Savić