The aesthetics of Orthodox faith.

In "Venice and the Byzantine Sphere," Maria Georgopoulou focuses primarily on Crete, from the perspective of both the colonizers and the indigenous population. A large part of her essay is devoted to the subject of icon painters in post-Byzantine Crete, who worked both in forma alla latina and in forma alla greca. Organized into workshops, these named painters traveled through Greece and Italy and created works for both Orthodox and Catholic patrons. An interesting section of her essay treats the expatriate Greek community of Venice, its role in founding churches in the city, and the introduction of Greek philosophical and literary texts to the Republic.

In an excellent essay, "Byzantium and the Rebirth of Art and Learning in Italy and France," Robert Nelson traces the effect of Byzantine scholars, such as Manuel Chrysoloras (ca. 1350-1415), and Greek books, such as Ptolemy's Geography, on humanistic studies in Italy. Addressing the intellectual motivations to collect and preserve Byzantine manuscripts, along with the impact of Greek letters on the Italian Renaissance, Nelson concentrates on two great cardinals of the fifteenth century: Bessarion (1403-1472) and Francesco Gonzaga (1444-1483). The entries in this part of the catalog, written by Nelson, Carmen C. Bambach, Georgi Parpulov, Maria Georgopoulou, and Stephen Scher, are of uniformly high caliber and tightly coordinated with the theme of the introductory essay. In contemplating Pisanello's studies of Emperor John VIII Palaiologos and his retinue (cat. nos. 318A, B), Bambach shares the state-of-the-field analysis on the two pages from the artist's sketchbook preserved in the Musee du Louvre, Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago (Fig. 6). This section of the catalog forms the blueprint for a much larger show that one hopes will be realized in the future.

In the volume's final essay, Maryan W. Ainsworth carefully dissects the transmission of Byzantine subjects and style to northern Europe. Knowledge of Byzantine art was both direct, as in the commissioning of Cretan icons for the Flanders market, and indirect, as in the circulation in the north of engravings and woodcuts based on Byzantine images. That Byzantine icons traveled to the north is documented in the inventories of private collections, such as that of Jean, duc de Berry. Conversely, northern artists traveled to Italy, where they may have viewed firsthand Byzantine icons or Italo-Byzantine works. Noteworthy is Ainsworth's discussion of the types of icons that circulated, primarily images of the Virgin (specifically types attributed to the hand of Saint Luke) and of Christ, such as the Man of Sorrows. The author also explores how Byzantine-style icons could be used for religious and political propaganda. Finally, Ainsworth studies the important issue of copying icons and how various styles and aspects of religious painting, derived from Byzantine or byzantinizing images, could coexist. The insightful catalog entries that follow, all written by Ainsworth, illustrate and expand on the points made in her essay.