The Art of the Genoese Colonies of the Black Sea Basin (1261-1475)

Book excerpt: Rafał Quirini-Popławski offers here the first panorama of the artistic phenomena of the Genoese outposts scattered around the Black Sea, an area whose cultural history is little known. The artistic creativity of the region emerges as extraordinarily rich and colorful, with a variety of heterogeneous, hybrid and intermingled characteristics. The book questions the extent to which the descriptor "Genoese" can be applied to the settlements’ artistic production; Quirini-Popławski demonstrates that, despite entrenched views of these colonies as centres of Italian and Latin culture, it was in fact Greek and Armenian art that was of greater importance.