Adam-und-Eva-Erzählungen im Bildprogramm kretischer Kirchen

Eine ikonographische und kulturhistorische Objekt- und Bildfindungsanalyse

Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident

The Western sacred art landscape of the Middle Ages presents a rich pageantry of images about the Adam and Eve story by using overlapping genres. In the large-scale paintings of the Eastern Church, on the other hand, the subject is only included in the repertoire of the churches during the post-Byzantine period. Thus, the innovative origins of Adam and Eve cycles in Venetian Crete of the 14^th and 15^th centuries, are even more remarkable. In five of the numerous painted Cretan churches, pictorial sequences with Adam and Eve were integrated into the iconographic concept. Beside the reconstruction of the partially destroyed frescoes, the comprehensive process of the iconographic invention will be subject of a detailed examination in this study, based on art- and cultural-historical analysis. The genesis of the wall paintings is characterized by a strong tension and a dynamic interplay between the preservation of traditional and available patterns and the inventiveness of innovative and creative elements. The broadly diversified research including Western and Eastern art traditions offers not only surprising insights into unusual pictorial formulas, but also in the varying reasons of reception in relation to the donors and their specific motivation.