HAGIOGRAPHY ( sacred painting )

Zakynthos was once home to a variety of well known artists who created brilliant works of art, it is also where the Eptanisian (Ionian) School of Art was founded.

Zakynthian art was influenced by many other places, especially Crete, the Byzantine style of art and the Italian Renaissance, which had clear elements of naturalism and later of Italian Baroque. The paintings of the Zakynthian artists gave richness to hagiographies.

The main representatives of Zakynthian art are Tzanes, Klodzas, Aggelos, Viktoras, Moscos, Doxaras, Kadounis, Koutouzis, Griparis Pelekasis, Kallergis and Koreis.

A disaster, of almost Biblical proportions, the massive earthquake of 1953 and the fire that followed destroyed the main part of this cultural heirloom. Many of these rare works of art were lost.

Whatever survived is housed in the Museum for Post-Byzantine Art In Zakynthos or in private collections. Even today Zakynthos has many artists and painters who still produce fine hagiographies.

Programme

• Visit the Museum for Post-Byzantine Art
• Visit the Ecclesiastical Museum of St Dennis
• Visit the workshop where old icons are restored
• Visit a studio of modern sacred painting