Introduction to the Post-Byzantine Miniature Art of the Monastery

Numerous are the objects of miniature art kept in the sacristy of the Vatopedi Monastery and date from approximately the mid-17th to the 19th century. On the contrary, the first post-Byzantine centuries (15th-16th centuries) appear particularly meager, for reasons unknown, which, however, must not be related only to the disruption caused by the Ottoman conquest. From approximately the same period, and specifically from the 14th to the 16th century, few works of Western or Eastern art have survived, representative of well-known goldsmiths or renowned workshops. Among the most important examples of post-Byzantine miniature art of the 17th century are the wood-carved crosses of consecration and blessing with elaborate binding, which are traditionally considered to be creations of the Athonite monks, and the so-called political jewelry. As for the techniques applied, the second half of the 17th century is the period during which the use of enamel in various techniques spread in silversmithing. The relics of the 18th and early 19th centuries have a diverse origin, thus reflecting the area of ​​influence of the Monastery and revealing the economic rise of the Greek communities of mainland Greece, Asia Minor and the Balkans during the late Ottoman rule. Since the early 19th century there are testimonies of monks engaged in silversmithing, while the most important works were commissioned to secular goldsmiths, who worked periodically on Mount Athos. In general, the relics of post-Byzantine miniature art provide a large number of inscriptions, which reveal to us the names of craftsmen and dedicatees and local workshops, and trace the artistic fluctuations of their time.