145-160

An unknown work by Thomas or Tomios Bathas in the Byzantine Museum of Athens

Σύμμεικτα

• Αχειμάστου - Ποταμιάνου, Μυρτάλη

The recent cleaning of an icon of the Holy Trinity in the Byzantine Museum (B.M. 4174, T. 2256, Colour P l a t e 1, a-b andf i g s 1-6) revealed on the painted ground, at the right-hand edge beneath the throne, the painter’s signature: Tomios Bathas painted.Thomas —or Tomios, as he signed himself— Bathas of Vathas was a well-known painter from Crete (1554-1599), who lived and worked in Corfu (written references 1585-1587) and Venice (from 1587), where he died in 1599 at the age of forty-five. There are signed and unsigned works by him in Patmos, Venice and Barletta (Bari). The icon in the Byzantine Museum, measuring 84x58.5x2.4 cm., and probably once the principal icon in the iconstasis of a church of the Holy Trinity, is well-preserved except for the destroyed extreme left edge, which has been repaired in the past with stucco and paint. The iconography typologically follows Cretan originals of the 15th c. Its traditional Cretan technique betrays in the modelling of the figures Tomios Bathas’s familiarity with Italian painting and may be compared, like other works of his, with the technique of the contemporary Cretan painters, Michael Damaskinos and a probable relative, Markos Bathas.The Holy Trinity is the second of Tomios’s works to bear the confirmation of his signature; the first is the apocalyptic Vision of St. John in the Convent of the Apocalypse on Patmos, and there is also a report of his signature signature in an icon in the church o f Santa Maria degli Angeli in Barletta (Bari). The icon in the Byzantine Museum is thus particularly important for the study of Tomios’s technique and for the identification of other unknown works by him. When compared with Tomios Bathas’s icons in Patmos, which are dated to around 1596, this one can on stylistic grounds be placed in the preceeding years and perhaps before 1590.On the strength of the new elements added to our knowledge of Bathas’s technique by the icon in the Byzantine Museum, and bycomparisons with his other known works, we can with caution attribute three more pictures to the same painter: the icon of St. Anne in the chapel of that name in the Convent of the Apocalypse on Patmos (Μ. Xατζηδάκης, Εικόνες της Πάτμου, Athens 1977, no. 67, p. 115, pi. 126), an icon o f the Archangels Michael and Gabriel in the church of the Taxiarchs at Apollonia on Siphnos (Θ. Χρ. Αλιπράντης, Θησαυροί της Σίφνου, Athens 1979, p. 28, pi. 16 and 35), and the icon of the enthroned Christ High Priest in the Greek Institute at Venice (M. Chatzidakis, Icones de Saint-Georges des Grecs et de la Collection de l' Institut, Venise 1962, no. 85, p. 110, pl. 55), which has been attributed —incorrectly in our opinion— to the painter-priest Ioannis Apakas (A. Skovran, Une oeuvre inconnue du peintre Jean Apakas, Zographc 4 (1972), p. 53).

• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Θρησκεία

Θρησκευτικές εικόνες, Τόμιος Μπάθας, Βυζαντινό Μουσείο

Το άρθρο περιέχει εικόνες.