From Heaven to Earth. Perceptions of Reality in Icon Painting

In this paper I attempt to trace the gradual and hesitant depiction of “reality” on icons from the Late Byzantine period onwards. By reality I mean on the one hand the depiction of the natural world, of space and of people, and on the other scenes featuring ordinary mortals shown in contexts designed to serve a religious purpose. It is usually thought that it was Byzantine artists’ growing familiarity with Western art, which from the 14^th century on was undergoing radical change that provided the necessary impetus towards the depiction of the natural world. For this reason I shall begin with a brief overview of the way in which Byzantine scholars reacted to Western works of art of the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance period. After that we will look at how artists enhanced their painting - and above all icons, the most austere form of religious art - with expressions of human emotions, with elements of the natural space and references to the world of mortals. The aim of this examination is to highlight the range and meaning of such changes and to assess the limitations of the icon genre.