The Rooms of Photography
The Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice inherited from the Greek Community of the city one of the most important collections of Orthodox art. The history of the collection is inextricably linked to the history of the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood of Venice and reflects the importance of the most important Greek community in Western Europe. The one-of-a-kind Museum of Icons includes some of the finest Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons in the collection, minor works of art, manuscripts, documents and various remarkable documents of the history of the Greeks of Venice. The Museum is housed on the first floor of a two-storey building in the Campo dei Greci, next to the church of St. George, the so-called Scoletta, where from 1678 to the beginning of the 20th century the Hospital of the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood operated.
The Museum was inaugurated in 1959 and renovated in 1999.
The museum collection includes masterpieces of Byzantine iconography such as the icons brought from Constantinople in the 15th century by Anna Paleologina Notara, which she offered to the Brotherhood. Post-Byzantine art is represented in the Museum by dozens of works by anonymous and well-known painters, such as Georgios Klontzas, Michael Damaskinos and Emmanuel Labardos, Fragias Kavertzas, Victor, John Apakas, Benedictus Emporios, Emmanuel Tzanfournaris, Thomas Bathas, Emmanuel and Konstantinos Janes, Theodoros Poulakis and John Moskos. Since many of the post-Byzantine icons belong to the so-called Cretan school, the visitor is given the opportunity to follow the evolution of the art of Cretan painters from the 15th to the 17th century.
Also on display in the Museum are valuable manuscripts, including a 13th century parchment evangelist’s book, the unique Novel of Alexander the Great with 250 miniatures and a summary of the texts in early Ottoman script, as well as a papyrus dating from the time of Justinian from Ravenna. The museum collection is complemented by an 18th century printed gospel, with velvet dripping decorated with cast silver tiles, as well as various heirlooms, such as vestments, belts and bishops’ girdles, gold and silver objects of minor craftsmanship, patriarchal and ducal documents, which were used to validate the privileges granted to the Brotherhood and the Greek Church from time to time.
