Icons in Mezzojuso
Leos Moskos - CC4.0
Mezzojuso preserves an enormous heritage of icons, four churches have the iconostasis.
In the Byzantine tradition, icons represent documents of historical, theological and philosophical interest, as well as artistic.
Icons, for the Eastern faithful, are Anàmnesi, the memory-recall, it is Kèrisma, the announcement-catechesis, is Theoria, the contemplation-prayer.
Mezzojuso, which belongs to the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, preserves numerous icons, some from the East, others brought from Greece, others painted in Sicily. Most are from Crete or from the so-called Cretan school, which, after the fall of Constantinople, represents the best of iconographic painting.
Among the main artists who worked in Mezzojuso, the name of Ioannichios stands out, born at the beginning of the 1600, to which six great icons of Mezzojuso are attributed.
The Greek Madrix of San Nicolò di Mira dating back to the early 16th century, contains Byzantine icons from the 15th - 16th century strong>, as well as an iconostasis with contemporary icons, painted in Athens by Kostas Zouvelos.
The Church of S. Maria di tutti le Grazie, granted to the Albanians in the 15th century, offers the most precious iconostasis in all of Sicily with icons from the 15th-16th century.
In the church of San Rocco the series of contemporary images that stand out in the iconostasis and in the whole church, created by Brother Pietro Vittorino, are characterized by a disenchanted pictorial lexicon that is always p Farthest from Byzantine ancestry and declined with a popular way.
