As part of its broader strategy to activate the full scope of its collections and its inclusive exhibition policy \u2013 addressing diverse audiences with varied interests and research perspectives in art history \u2013 the National Gallery and Alexandros Soutsos Museum presents a selection of religious copperplate engravings alongside original copper printing plates. This exhibition offers the public a concise overview of the early phases of Greek printmaking with religious subject matter.<\/p>\n
Paper icons \u2013 thanks to their affordable price, wide availability, acceptance by the Church and monastic communities, and their recognition by the faithful as devotional objects on par with hand-painted portable icons on wood panel \u2013 came to hold a prominent place in Orthodox religious art of the period. They played a vital role in the renewal of religious imagery, in the dissemination of iconographic subjects, and in the personal appropriation of sacred figures and symbols.<\/p>\n
Following the invention of printing in mid-15th-century Germany, paper icons flourished across Europe \u2013 initially in the form of brief printed leaflets featuring saints and prayers, intended for pilgrims and believers. New printing techniques \u2013 first woodcut, and later copperplate engraving \u2013 enabled the production of multiple copies. These prints circulated widely via the period\u2019s most effective distribution channels: markets and trade fairs. This facilitated the accelerated exchange of artistic models and ideas, and the dissemination of major works of the Italian Renaissance throughout Europe and the Balkans. Through prints, artists encountered the work and ideas of their peers and adopted them as models, thereby enriching their own practice with compositional devices, perspectives, and narrative strategies from other creators.<\/p>\n
Based on existing evidence and surviving prints, the earliest Christian Orthodox engravings date to the second half of the 17th century, when the Eastern Orthodox Church embraced this new artistic medium to depict religious iconography or to represent sacred architecture \u2013 churches and monasteries. These prints were produced in the print workshops of cities with a strong typographic tradition, such as Lviv in Poland, Venice, and Vienna. After the mid-18th century, the expertise of engraving spread to the major monastic centres of Mount Athos and Sinai. In these urban and monastic workshops, scenes and accompanying texts were meticulously engraved according to the instructions of the monasteries. The influence of Western European art is evident \u2013 in the modelling of the figures, the rendering of perspective, and the introduction of new iconographic motifs. The costs of production and the delivery of the prints to the monasteries were usually undertaken by Greek merchants of the diaspora. Through these engravings, the history, relics, wonder-working icons, and sacred remains kept in the monasteries \u2013 as well as their fortress-like architectural complexes \u2013 were brought to wider attention. These depictions, together with their inscriptions, urged the faithful to undertake pilgrimages or to contribute financial support. Alternatively, they served as precious mementoes of a pilgrimage already made.<\/p>\n
For her dedicated and thoughtful curation of this display of paper icons from the National Gallery\u2019s collection, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my colleague, Katerina Tavantzi, art historian and curator of printmaking, as well as to all the colleagues who supported the organisation and presentation of this exhibition.<\/p>\n
Syrago TsiaraArt HistorianDirector, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutsos Museum<\/p>\n
Paper Icons \u2013 The Beginnings of Greek Printmaking<\/p>\n
The term paper icon refers to prints with religious themes \u2013 a lesser-known strand of Christian Orthodox iconographic tradition that flourished for roughly two and a half centuries, from the mid-17th to the late 19th century. Developed in parallel with paintings on wood panel, this form of Greek popular printmaking spread widely across the Christian Orthodox East, from the confined borders of Ottoman-ruled territories to the farthest reaches of the Greek diaspora.<\/p>\n
Colloquially known as \u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03bc\u03c0\u03b5\u03c2, a term derived from the Italian stampa (print), these printed icons embodied deep folk piety and held the same devotional value as hand-painted portable icons, which were financially out of reach for all but the wealthiest classes. They enjoyed immense popularity with ordinary people, who placed them in home icon corners as substitutes for painted images they could not afford to commission or acquire.<\/p>\n
Beyond depicting Christ, the Virgin, and various saints, these paper icons illustrated scenes from the broader repertoire of ecclesiastical iconography. In doing so, they fulfilled an educational function through pictorial means, aimed at an audience that was not always literate but deeply religious. Orthodox print imagery also included topographical renderings of major monastic centres \u2013such as Mount Athos and Mount Sinai\u2013 featuring simplified representations of architectural complexes and the surrounding landscape. Panoramic views of individual monasteries often featured the monastery\u2019s patron saint or main icon.<\/p>\n
Beginning with the rudimentary woodcuts of the 17th century, in the 18th century religious printmaking underwent a stylistic evolution. This was due to the adoption of copperplate engraving technique and the influence of Western European aesthetics \u2013 shaped by the major cultural centres (Venice, Vienna, Paris, Leipzig, and others) where affluent Greek communities undertook the production of these prints. However, the borrowing of Western elements \u2013such as sculptural modelling, three-dimensional space, and Baroque ornamentation\u2013 was never mere imitation. Printmakers retained a distinctive visual language rooted in the iconographic codes of Byzantine painting and manuscript illumination, in which they were versed.<\/p>\n
By the late 18th century, the first monastic workshops on Mount Athos were established, equipped with printing presses and staffed primarily by monks \u2013some self-taught, others trained in goldsmithing. This localised production gradually displaced foreign centres and spread to Orthodox communities across Greece and the Balkans. The Athonite paper icons of the 19th century embody the genre\u2019s most distinctive and original expression. While never entirely abandoning Western models, their makers increasingly adopted a simplified style, more closely aligned with folk tradition \u2013featuring flat designs, rigid figures, and perspective methods clearly reminiscent of Byzantine prototypes.<\/p>\n
These single-sheet prints also served as a means of communication between monasteries and the outside world. They were either offered as blessings to attract pilgrims or distributed during long fundraising journeys in which itinerant monks collected alms and donations vital to the monastery\u2019s financial survival.<\/p>\n
Owing to their visual richness and the dedicatory inscriptions often found along their lower margins, paper icons serve as an invaluable source for understanding both the religious and social history of the Greek world. They constitute a treasured part of the nation\u2019s cultural heritage, documenting the wider cultural life of Christian Orthodox Hellenism under Ottoman rule and beyond.<\/p>\n
Curator: Katerina Tavantzi<\/p>\n
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