Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Albanian Icon painting »

The murals of the single-aisle timber-roofed basilica of the Transfiguration (Shen Sotiri) in Tremisht (Permet, southern Albania) date from 1560. Several features, such as the Theotokos Blachernitissa, the Passion cycle, the courtiers? hats and clothes of certain military saints, as well as the style of the frescoes, lead us to the artistic tradition of the Ohrid Archbishopric. Moreover, a few iconographic peculiarities seem to be associated with Ioannis from Gramosta (before the mid-sixteenth century). Consequently, the ?Tremisht painter? might have been a member of Ioannis? workshop, representing thus the beginning stages of the so-called ?School of Gramos? of Post-Byzantine icon painting.

Aims: The present study is part of a project concerning the characterisation of a limited number of selected Albanian Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons, through the identification of pigments, of painting technique and the state of conservation of the artworks. The Albanian iconographers produced an extraordinary amount of icons from the 14th till the 19th century, and over six thousand of them are kept in the Museum of Medieval Art of Korça (Albania). This paper refers to the results obtained in the study of two artworks, the first one by Simoni i Ardenices an important Albanian painter of XVII century, and the second one attributed to him. Study Design: The present work is part of a more general study concerning Albanian Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons. Place and Duration of Study: Museum of Medieval Art of Korça, Albania, between June 2008 and July 2009. Methodology: The work was conducted by non-destructive methods, X-ray fluorescence, visible light reflectance spectrophotometry and UV fluorescence analysis, according to a systematic procedure developed in the same Chemical Physical Laboratory for Cultural Heritage. A number of areas, for each painting, were chosen in order to carry out the measurements. With this procedure, we could identify the inorganic pigments from their characteristic features. Moreover, the study of the chemical physical properties of paintings is of fundamental importance for any accurate restoration intervention. Results and Conclusion: The present work, concerning the study of two icons of the second half of 17th century by Simoni i Ardenices, has allowed us to identify the painting technique and the palette used in these works of art. Moreover, the areas of the paintings in which old restorations have been made have also been identified.