| A study of the career of the Cretan artist Domenicos Theotocopoulos in the late 16th and early 17th century, from the eastern Mediterranean and medieval art to the Italian centres of Venice and Rome, where the heart of the Renaissance and Mannerism beat, finally settling at the western end of the same sea, in Baroque Spain. The author examines the artistic tradition to which Theotocopoulos was exposed in his native land, his initiation into the aesthetics of Venetian painting, and the development of his style in the works of the Roman and Spanish periods. The author also refutes the arguments in favour of the iconographical and morphological relationship between Byzantine painting and the artist's personal style, which is interpreted here in the light of European art. |