International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Ivana Jevtić
, 
Rethinking the Passion Cycle: 
Representation of Emotions, the Emphatic Response and Narration in Late Byzantine Painting
Warren Woodfin,
The Passion and Liturgical Textiles: Veiling and Revealing the Sacrifice of Christ

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Maria Vassilaki
University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece;
[e-mail]
Passion Cycles in Venetian Crete
This paper examines Passion cycles depicted in churches of Venetian held Crete in an effort to 
understand what changes had occurred and why. It will focus on fourteenth-century churches and 
will select examples in which Passion cycles with a strong Western influence appear as a result of 
the presence of the Venetians and most probably of the activity of Mendicant orders in the island of 
Crete. At the same time it will look at Passion cycles which show how closely Cretan painters were 
able to follow the developments of the Passion cycle in Late Byzantine churches. To make these 
points clear two key monuments will be selected: the church of the Transfiguration of Christ in 
Temenia, Selino in the prefecture of Chania and the monastery church of the Virgin Gouverniotissa 
in Potamies in the prefecture of Heraklion.
Michele Bacci
University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland;
[e-mail]
Icons of Narratives:
Passion Cycles in Panel Painting between Byzantium and Venice
In the 13
th
and 14
th
centuries, Passion cycles started being introduced not only in the decoration 
of religious buildings, but also in a number of icons and diptychs, originally associated with individual 
forms of piety. Even if it is currently assumed that such developments were basically associated with 
the spread of a new religious sensibility originating in the West and being especially fostered by the 
Mendicant orders, it is a matter of fact that analogous objects became widespread enough even in 
Greek contexts, as is indicated by a number of meaningful objects, including a 13
th
century icon of 
the 
Assumption 
encircled by Passion scenes, now in the Byzantine Museum in Pedoulas, Cyprus, and 
the fragment of a 14
th
century diptych now in the Museum of Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki. 
Moreover, the largest group of painted panels displaying a Passion cycle originating in the West date 
from the earliest half of the 14
th
century and stands out for its distinctively Byzantinizing forms, 
associated with contemporary Palaiologan painting.
The present paper aims at investigating the extant Byzantine and Venetian examples of icons 
displaying a Passion cycle from a distinctively comparative viewpoint, with a special focus on the 
analysis of their shared compositional and iconographic features. These objects will be interpreted 
as cross-cultural items intended to suit the devotional sensibility needs of individual believers, 
regardless of their religious affiliation. Emphasis will be laid on their diffusion in the Mediterranean, 
in connection with the emergence of meditational practices associated with the Passion and Holy 
Land pilgrimage.

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