L’oro dipinto: El Greco e la pittura tra Creta e Venezia

Curators: Chiara Squarcina, Katerina Dellaporta, Andrea Bellieni

A golden thread unites the histories, artistic traditions, and devotional practices between Venice and Crete (Candia), highlighting their deep cultural ties from the 13th to the 19th century. Centred on the use of painted gold in devotional icons, the exhibition explores the relationship between Byzantine heritage and Venetian creativity. After the fall of Constantinople, Candia emerged as a major hub for post-Byzantine art, home to over 100 workshops creating sacred images. Venice, meanwhile, became a new Byzantium, attracting artists and iconographers from the Aegean. The result was a unique fusion of Eastern and Western styles, combining the spiritual solemnity of Byzantine tradition with the humanism and naturalism of the Gothic and Renaissance. The seven exhibition sections trace this pictorial evolution, culminating in the work of El Greco, born in Crete and trained in the island’s iconographic style before arriving in Venice. A scientific focus on icon-making techniques, developed in collaboration with the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (CHNet), complements the exhibition. Organised in partnership with the Republic of Greece, the Fondazione MUVE, and major Greek and European institutions, the exhibition celebrates centuries of cross-cultural exchange and shared visual language.