Whose Adriatic? Blurring the Boundaries of East and West in the Artistic Production of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Adriatic

Authors

• Margarita Voulgaropoulou, Ruhr-Universitat BochumFollow

Abstract

Traditionally viewed as a cultural periphery of Catholic Europe and dominated by Venetian influence, the Adriatic Sea has long been framed through rigid binaries such as East and West, Orthodox and Catholic, center and periphery. This article challenges such dichotomies by repositioning the Adriatic as a space of cultural convergence, shaped by intense mobility, demographic diversity, and interconfessional exchange. In visual terms, the region’s ethno-confessional and cultural pluralism was manifested in the production of artworks that synthesized pictorial elements from the Byzantine, late Gothic, and Renaissance traditions. Artists trained in the Byzantine tradition engaged dynamically with Western forms, techniques, styles, and iconographies, giving rise to works that resist fixed categories and stable attributions. Through a close examination of select artworks produced by Byzantine-trained icon painters for a predominantly Catholic patronage, this article traces the emergence and development of eclectic and hybrid pictorial solutions in Adriatic centers from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In doing so, it conceives the Adriatic as a dynamic space of mediation, where artists, patrons, and visual languages intertwined to generate new transcultural expressions.

Recommended Citation

Voulgaropoulou, Margarita () "Whose Adriatic? Blurring the Boundaries of East and West in the Artistic Production of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Adriatic," Studies in Iconography: Vol. 47, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/studies_in_iconography/vol47/iss1/4