Under the Ottomans, Greece at Work (Published 2005) (2024)

For nearly 400 years after 1453, when the Ottoman Turks invaded Constantinople, finishing off the Byzantine Empire, Greece was among the countries that languished under their regime. Ottoman repressions finally led to the Greek war of independence in 1821, resulting, after nine years, in a hard-won Greek victory.

Yet the very troubles brought about by the occupation -- constant battles between the Ottomans and the Venetians that killed men and destroyed monuments; forcible conversions to Islam; Greek migrations to the West; and struggles against the invaders by those who stayed -- helped to strengthen a sense of national identity and bolster Greek culture.

That story is told in "From Byzantium to Modern Greece: Hellenic Art in Adversity, 1453-1830," a show assembled by Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum in Athens. Selected from the Benaki's collection, and now appearing at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York, it is a busy, ambitious hodgepodge that sets out to present all aspects of the visual art in Greece during this period. The range spans wonderful early paintings and icons, like a panel by the youthful El Greco; examples of domestic crafts practiced by Greek women; jewelry and church ornaments; and maps and charts.

Two constants -- the ancient, beautiful Greek language and the unifying power of the Orthodox Church, the only Byzantine institution to survive the Ottoman conquest -- kept Hellenism alive and helped shape its self-awareness in the modern world, Mr. Delivorrias wrote in the show's catalog. The language, of course, fostered a sense of nationhood, and the church, besides serving as spiritual and judicial authority, was the major patron for works of art.

So if political self-determination did not flourish over the four centuries, the arts of civilization did, nourished by Byzantine tradition, European achievements, Western fashion, Ottoman ornamentation and the classical Greek past. As much a history show as an art exhibition, "From Byzantium to Modern Greece" may be lacking in masterpieces, but it gives a vivid picture of the period.

First there are the icons and panel paintings, whose most brilliant examples came from the Venetian-held island of Crete, a dynamic artistic community where traditional Byzantine painting met the styles of late Gothic and Renaissance Italy. The Crete-born painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614), better known as El Greco, was trained in the Byzantine tradition, but strong Italian influences appear in his small panel painting, "The Adoration of the Magi" (circa 1560-67). It puts the Virgin and Child, attended by the wise men, in the ruins of a Renaissance-style building meant to suggest the decadent old order, which the Child will overturn.