Traces of Byzantine models in Ligurian painting between 13th and 14th century

The thirteenth and fourteenth-centuries Liguria painting reveals the adoption of aspects of Byzantine art as response to the local taste. This interest in eastern imagery was documented from the mid of 13th century, when "Greek" icons were recorded in the Genoese churches of Santa Maria di Castello and San Francesco di Castelletto, to the 15th century, when, after the loss of the colony of Pera (1461), artistic objects and relics were moved to Genoa in order to be preserved. Moreover, the presence of Byzantine painters was also attested in Genoa in this period, suggesting patron's requests for eastern images, probably appreciated for their devotional value. Even if early Byzantine icons didn't survive, we have a group of wall and panel paintings that reflect "Greek" iconographic formula and descriptive details. In this essay, I intend to analyze two themes related to this phenomenon: first, the use and re-use of Virgin Eleousa iconographic "type" and, second, the origin and the meaning of an unusual mise-en-scene present in two early fourteenth-century panel paintings, where the half-length Virgin holding the Child is flanked by two full-length saints placed, one for each side, in the background. Adopting a larger perspective of research, my final purpose will be to propose a reflection of the social function these images were meant to fulfil, and their cultural meanings.