Exhibition “Dominicos Theotokopoulos between Venice and Rome”
July 8, 2014
Maria Smali
Αn exhibition entitled “Dominicos Theotokopoulos between Venice and Rome” is organized on the occasion of the quatercentenary of Theotokopoulos’ death. It is being held from 21 June to 25 October, 2014 at the Historical Museum of Crete, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum. The exhibition then will travel to the Benaki Museum (138 Pireos St., Athens) from 20th November 2014 to 1st March 2015.
The exhibition investigates the artist’s first steps in the West, during his stay in Venice and through the early stages of his residence in Rome (1567-1574). It centers on two panels painted in Italy which are kept in Heraklion, Crete: The Baptism of Christ, and the View of Mt Sinai and the Monastery of St Catherine. Paintings, engravings and manuscripts allow visitors to follow the blossoming art of this ambitious and defiant Cretan in the important artistic centers of post-Renaissance Italy.
The exhibition presents major paintings and engravings from museums and private collections in Greece, Italy and Germany: the Galleria Uffizi (Florence); Pinacoteca Vaticana (Rome); Münchner Stadtmuseum (Munich); Kupferstichkabinett (Berlin); Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica (Rome); the Byzantine and Christian Museum (Athens); the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; the Zosimaia Library; the Archdiocese of Crete; the Marianna Latsi Collection, etc. It is complemented by a wealth of archival material, books and documentary evidence.
The Gennadius Library has loaned two rare books with engravings of the monastery of St. Catherine's on Mount Sinai from its collections to the exhibition.