The Kykkotissa Virgin and Its Italian Appropriation

This article deals with the impact of Cypriot art on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italian panel painting. The main consideration is an iconographic type of Virgin and Child, known as the Kykkotissa Virgin. This article provides an analysis of the Cypriot iconographic type and its variations, as well as a discussion of the possible channels through which Cypriot art reached Italy. The various occurrences of the Kykkotissa Virgin in Italian panels of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries indicate artistic connections between Cyprus and Italy. This article proposes that Tuscany, in particular, had close ties to Cyprus and played an important role in the diffusion of Cypriot iconographic types. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion of the dissemination of types and motifs from Byzantine tradition to the thirteenth-century Italian art.