LA SCUOLA PITTORICA IN EPTANESO E IL SUO RUOLO DECISIVO NELLA MODERNIZZAZIONE DELLA PITTURA IN GRECIA

The research focuses on the Heptanese School of Greek art, a little explored topic, characterized by profound differences in the artistic critics. The path of the School is investigated by a method characterized on a multifaceted approach, analyzing the artistic phenomenon contextualized in its social and cultural environment. On this basis, while taking into consideration the undeniable influence of the European artistic culture, we find that the Heptanese School has had an autonomous and endogenous identity. The research reveals the important innovation of the school, first of all the primacy of introducing secular painting in the Hellenic territory, and thus recognizes its role in the formation of modern Greek taste. In addition, the painters of the Heptanese School borne a deep laceration in the Byzantine aesthetics, passing, though gradually, to a religious devotional icon, that had never occurred before in an Orthodox country.