Michael Damaskinos, 'Stoning of Saint Stephen', c.1591

 

For a painting that seems to the eye so rooted in the Byzantine traditions of icon painting, it is altogether surprising that the date comes from the mid to late sixteenth century. Here, the artist Michael Damaskinos is conflating style and iconography. He was extremely well travelled - born in Crete he learnt the ways of icon painting, before travelling to Venice and subsequently all across Italy, where his style became infused with Italian naturalism. Despite this, he retained his alla Grecia manner, and highlighted his Greek roots in his decoration of San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice, literally the church of the Greeks. Twenty-five of the artist's major works are in Venice and twenty located in this church alone. Having apparently trained El Greco, Damaskinos was the master of the Cretan school of icon painting, and the Venetians recognised his importance. 

Given the rather vague dating of the Stoning of Saint Stephen, one can presume Damaskinos created the work when he was in Venice. Surrounded by the Italian masters, he would have been familiar with the artistic output of the time, especially in Venice which arguably held the first art market of the early modern period. A key depiction of the same subject is by the brothers Jacopo and Domenico Tintoretto of a similar date. A youthful Saint Stephen kneels in the foreground, just as in the work by Damaskinos. Moreover, the figure hurling the large stone towards the saint in Damaskinos' work seems like a direct quotation from the depiction by the Tintoretto brothers. Or, perhaps Damaskinos was familiar with the work of Giulio Romano from the start of the sixteenth century, where again this figure heaving the rock above his head is depicted. The hands of Saint Stephen in both Giulio and Damaskinos' works are also splayed outwards, recalling artworks depicting the stigmatisation of Saint Francis, conflating the iconography of saints. The twisting bodies that Damaskinos has attempted to render in some of his figures also recalls the approach of these Italian artists. 

However, Damaskinos continues to show off his Cretan origins. For instance, he cannot render the separation of the plane of God above the saint because his background remains rooted in the Byzantine propensity for gold. Equally the solid gold halo of Saint Stephen is giant and unyielding in the centre of the panel, something the Italian artists have dropped. He has also utilised the technique of mordant gilding to decorate the sash that Saint Stephen wears, enhancing the perfomativity of the panel which was a key aspect of icon painting. What is particularly unusual, however, is the contrast between Byzantine elongation and archaism in the hands of Saint Stephen and indeed the faces of the surrounding figures, whilst the face of Saint Stephen is incredibly emotional. Damaskinos has attempted Italian naturalism here, and the viewer witnesses the pain and grief of the saint's torture. He looks up towards the sky in perhaps a final conflicted questioning of his faith. Surrounded by that Byzantine halo, the eye is propelled towards this devotional epicentre of the piece, and the pained expression of this martyred saint.