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The Religious Relationship between Byzantium and the West

• 
  Christ Bearing the Cross, ca. 1489–1500
  Nicolaos Tzafouris (active by 1489, d. 1500)
  Greek (Crete)
  Oil and tempera on wood, gold ground; 27 1/4 x 21 1/2 in. (69.2 x 54.6 cm)
  Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, Funds from various donors, 1929 (29.158.746)
  
• 

  Madonna and Child, ca. 1300
  Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian, Sienese, active ca. 1278–d. 1318)
  Tempera and gold on wood, with original engaged frame; Overall, with frame, 11 x 8 1/4 in. (27.9 x 21 cm); painted surface 9 3/8 x 6 1/2 in. (23.8 x 16.5 cm)
  Purchase, Rogers Fund, Walter and Leonore Annenberg and The Annenberg Foundation Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Annette de la Renta Gift, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, Louis V. Bell, and Dodge Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, several members of The Chairman's Council Gifts, Elaine L. Rosenberg and Stephenson Family Foundation Gifts, 2003 Benefit Fund, and other gifts and funds from various donors, 2004 (2004.442)

  

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During the Late Byzantine period, church authorities made efforts to unify the Latin and Greek churches. After the Fourth Crusade of 1204, the break between the two churches was considered definitive. For two centuries, various attempts were made to reconcile the breach, but the Latin domination of Byzantium and certain theological issues rendered these aspirations ineffective. In 1274, Michael VIII Palaiologos and Pope Gregory X held the Council of Lyon to discuss a formal union. Michael's representatives swore obedience to the Roman church and its faith. While politically useful, great resistance within the Byzantine population spurred repudiation of the settlement eleven years later. Another meeting occurred in 1438, when Pope Eugenius IV met with Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. The emperor brought with him the most esteemed Byzantine intellectuals of the day, including Joseph II and Bessarion, who would remain in Italy promoting the cause of union after being ordained a Roman cardinal. Meeting in Ferrara until an outbreak of the plague forced the assembly to move to Florence, the members debated issues such as primal papacy and purgatory. Political as well as theological issues were at stake. The papacy hoped for political subordination of the Byzantine empire. The Byzantines wanted military aid against the Turks. The union decree of the July 6, 1439, proved ephemeral and, after the collapse of the empire, the Byzantine church renounced the agreement.

While attempts at official union between the churches were not wholly successful, compromise and exchange were widespread in the arts.

Related

Timelines (7)

• Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1000–1400 a.d.
• Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1400–1600 a.d.
• Balkan Peninsula, 1000–1400 a.d.
• Balkan Peninsula, 1400–1600 a.d.
• Italian Peninsula, 1000–1400 a.d.
• Rome and Southern Italy, 1400–1600 a.d.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1400–1600 a.d.

Primary Thematic Essays (4)

• Byzantium (ca. 330–1453)
• Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium
• Ottonian Art
• The Crusades (1095–1291)

Other Thematic Essays (19)

• Antique Engraved Gems and Renaissance Collectors
• Byzantine Art under Islam
• Byzantine Ivories
• Frescoes and Wall Painting in Late Byzantine Art
• Hagia Sophia, 532–37
• Italian Painting of the Later Middle Ages
• Italian Renaissance Frames
• List of Rulers of Byzantium
• List of Rulers of Europe
• Mendicant Orders in the Medieval World
• Nudity and Classical Themes in Byzantine Art
• Popular Religion: Magical Uses of Imagery in Byzantine Art
• Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity
• Sienese Painting
• The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages
• The Byzantine State under Justinian I (Justinian the Great)
• The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages
• The Master of Monte Oliveto (active about 1305
• The Papacy and the Vatican Palace

Maps (5)

• Europe, 1000-1400 A.D.
• Europe, 500-1000 A.D.
• West Asia, 1000-1400 A.D.
• World, 1000-1400 A.D.
• World, 500-1000 A.D.

Index Terms (16)

Art Movement/Style

• Byzantine Art from Europe
• Byzantine Art from West Asia

Artist

• Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian, Sienese, active ca. 1278–1318)
• Tzafouris, Nicolaos (Greek, active by 1489, d. 1500)

Geography/Place

• The Balkan Peninsula
• Byzantium
• Northern Italy and Venice
• European Medieval Art
• Anatolia and the Caucasus
• Byzantium

Subject Matter/Theme

• Christ
• Icons and Iconoclasm
• Christian Architecture
• Cross
• Christian Painting
• Trade (1000–1400 a.d.)

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While attempts at official union between the churches were not wholly successful, compromise and exchange were widespread in the arts. Byzantine and Western artists adopted styles and compositions from each other in both monumental decorations and panel painting. One center of artistic exchange was the city of Candia, the capital of Venetian-owned Crete. The icon of Christ Bearing the Cross (29.158.746) by Nicolaos Tzafouris reveals a great mixture and exchange of artistic ideas. For example, the artist signs his name in Latin but writes the title of the scene in Greek. The rock formations are typically Byzantine, while the iconography of the scene is distinctly Italian.



Annie Labatt Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Labatt, Annie. "The Religious Relationship between Byzantium and the West". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rrbw/hd_rrbw.htm (October 2004) Further Reading Belting, Hans Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Belting, Hans, ed. Il Medio Oriente e l'Occidente nell'arte del XIII secolo. Bologna: CLUEB, 1982. Demus, Otto The Church of San Marco in Venice. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1960. Demus, Otto The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Derbes, Anne Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Hyman, Isabelle "The Venice Connection: Questions about Brunelleschi and the East." In Florence and Venice: Comparisons and Relations, edited by Nicolai Rubinstein and Craig Hugh Smyth, vol. 1, pp. 193–208.. Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1979. Nelson, Robert S. "The Italian Appreciation and Appropriation of Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts, ca. 1200–1450." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 49 (1995), pp. 209–35.. n/a: n/a, n/a. Striker, Cecil L., and Y. Dogan Kuban, eds. Kalenderhane in Istanbul. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1997. Wilson, Nigel G. From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Wixom, William D. "Byzantine Art and the Latin West." In The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261, edited by Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom, pp. 434–510.. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)