Nikolaos Lampoudis ( el, Νικόλαος Λαμπούδης) was a 15th Century

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

painter from

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

. The only work of his of which historians are aware is an icon of the Virgin and Child of a kind known as a

hodegetria A Hodegetria , ; russian: Одиги́трия, Odigítria ; Romanian: Hodighitria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of s ...

eleusa The Eleusa (or ''Eleousa''; el, Ἐλεούσα – ''tenderness'' or ''showing mercy'') is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in icons in which the Christ Child is nestled against her cheek. In the Western Church the type is often known as ...

. Lampoudis was a member of the Greek Renaissance's early

Cretan School Cretan School describes an important school of icon painting, under the umbrella of post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall of Constantinople, becom ...

, a movement influenced by the art of Venice.

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...

also played a part in shaping his style.

Angelos Akotantos Angelos Akotantos (Greek language, Greek: Άγγελος Ακοτάντος 1390-1457) was a Greeks, Greek painter, educator, and protopsaltis. He painted in the Byzantine style or Italo-Byzantine, maniera greca. He represented the transition from ...

and

Andreas Ritzos Andreas Ritzos ( el, Ανδρέας Ρίτζος 1421-1492) also known as (Rico, Ricio, Rizo). He was a Greeks, Greek icon painter, from Crete. Ritzos is considered one of the founding fathers of the Cretan School. He was affiliated with Angel ...

were among the other Greek artists of Lampoudis's time who worked in a similar manner. The Cretan School's movement from the Byzantine tradition towards a more refined technique has a parallel in how

Duccio Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Ducc ...

and

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

developed their work in Italy.

History

Lampoudis was born in Sparta. Not much is known about his life. The only existing record is an icon painted during the 15th century. His signature describes his place of origin. Sparta was part of the

Despotate of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...

and fell to the Ottomans in 1460. The last name was associated with the Greek-Byzantine family named Lampoudios. The name appears throughout Byzantine history from the 11th century until the 15th century. There was a famous scribe by the name Matthew Sebastos Lampoudes from the Péloponnèse region, possibly Spartan. The earliest known record of the Lampoudes name in Crete was 1562–1563. Records exist regarding Kyriakos Lampoudes. Lampoudis's technique is the Greek-Byzantine technique prevalent in Thessaloniki, Constantinople, and

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

's and

's paintings served as the prototype of the

maniera greca Italo-Byzantine is a style term in art history, mostly used for medieval paintings produced in Italy under heavy influence from Byzantine art. It initially covers religious paintings copying or imitating the standard Byzantine icon types, but pa ...

and the Greek Renaissance or

. Lampoudis appears at the end of the Byzantine art movement and the beginning of the Greek Renaissance. The Lampoudis painting has been preserved for over six hundred years. The icon is in a private collection in Athens, it previously belonged to a collector in Rome. The icon's dimensions are 0.67 X 0.47 X 0.02 meter or 2.2 X 1.54 X 0.07 feet and is painted on wood that forms a relief frame. The painting was bought at an auction in London. It belonged to an Italian family for three generations. In 1981, it was preserved by Rodolfo Lujan. He fixed the wood and painting. He also cleaned it in a special laboratory. In 1984, the Byzantine Museum in Athens proved the authenticity of the signature. His signature was ΧΕΙΡ ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΛΑΜΠΟΥΔΗ, ΣΠAPTIATOY Achimasto Patamianoy, 1997, pp. 269-270

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Cretan Renaissance Cretan Renaissance painters 15th-century Greek painters 15th-century Greek people Greek Renaissance humanists Byzantine painters 15th-century births 15th-century deaths 15th-century Byzantine people People from Laconia

History

See also

References

Bibliography