Italo-Byzantine

Italo-Byzantine is the art-historical name - the contemporary Italian term was maniera greca, 'Greek manner' - for medieval painting in Italy made under heavy Byzantine influence. From the thirteenth century, Italian workshops copied and adapted standard Byzantine icon types, above all the Madonna and Child, on gold-ground panels; the painters were usually untrained in strict Byzantine technique, so the results are Italian readings of Greek models. This tradition introduced the small, framed portable panel to Western Europe and dominated Italian painting until the late thirteenth century, when Cimabue and then Giotto began steering Florentine art toward greater naturalism; it lingered in provincial and devotional contexts into the fifteenth century and beyond. Vasari later dismissed it as 'that clumsy Greek style,' but its gold grounds, strong outlines, and expressive patterning shaped Italian art for generations.

Defining characteristics

• Gold grounds that deny depth and set figures in a timeless, heavenly space
• Strong outlines; figures built from abstract, expressive, patterned shapes
• Stylized faces and drapery with formulaic folds and patterned highlights
• Byzantine icon types copied at a distance: frontal Madonnas, elongated saints, tilted heads
• Small, framed portable panels - the format that introduced panel painting to Western Europe
• Flat, symbolic color with little modeling or natural light

Key figures

• Coppo di Marcovaldo (fl. mid-13th century) — Florentine painter, the earliest named master working in the maniera greca
• Berlinghiero of Lucca (fl. c. 1228-1242) — Lucchese painter of gold-ground Madonnas in the Italo-Byzantine manner
• Cimabue (c. 1240-1302) — Late master of the style who began steering Florentine painting toward naturalism
• Duccio (c. 1255-1319) — Sienese master who softened the Byzantine manner with lyric line and depth

Example works

• Santa Trinita Maestà — Cimabue (c. 1280-1290)
• Rucellai Madonna — Duccio (1285)

Sources

• Italo-Byzantine - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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