Cretan School

As a Cretan school is an important school of religious painting, especially of icon painting, called, brought Byzantine art, a late flowering during the Venetian rule of Crete from the 15th to the 17th century.

Historical and cultural background

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, an exodus of Byzantine artists and scholars began from the now Ottoman -dominated town in the territory of Venice. Special attraction of Crete practiced on them, that a Christian island in the eastern Mediterranean was formed as Regno di Candia and became the center of art in the Greek world.

Crete was an important center of icon painting. As a Venetian territory it had a natural advantage in the market to meet the strong demand for Byzantine icons in Europe, so that it soon dominated the offer.

An early example is the famous icon of the Virgin Mary in Sant'Alfonso in Rome, known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which was well known in Rome. At this time, there were hardly any stylistic differences between Cretan and other Byzantine icons.

In this period also saw a significant number of murals in churches and monasteries. In Crete, a total of around 850 frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries have been preserved, far more than from earlier or later periods ..

The lively cultural exchange between Italy and Crete resulted in a strong mutual influence and cultural fertilization. Also taught the Greek language, as in Italy and classical texts were read, took over the tradition of painting byzyntinischen entstamme artists in Crete aspects of painting and especially the painting technique and representation from the Renaissance Italy and merged it with the Byzantine tradition. Italian painters such as Titian and Veronese practiced on many Greek artists a powerful fascination.

A total of 100 icon painter who worked in the heyday of the Cretan School, who worked for Orthodox, Catholic as well as private clients. School was St. Catherine's Church in Heraklion, on the theologians and jurists were trained and served as a university.

After the Ottoman occupation of Crete in the 17th century, the center of Greek painting shifted to the Ionian Islands, which remained under Venetian rule until 1797. There was with the painting school of the Ionian Islands, a new art movement that was predominantly influenced by Western artistic trends.

Stylistic characteristics

Towards the end of the 15th century Cretan artists had, however, developed a Ikonenmalstil, the rezipierte forms and contents of the Western representation. He is by richer colors, a more human, more emotional representation of the depicted figures, through attention to detail, precise contours, plasticity, spatial depth and perspective, the modeling of the flesh with a dark brown coat and small glossy spots on the cheeks, bright colors in the dresses, geometric drapery and balanced structure of the composition characterized. In part, the representation remains strong from a strict orthodox canon dominated, partly they strongly turns a naturalistic style.

Known representatives

Michael Damaskinos

Michael Damaskinos was the most important representative of the Cretan school of that time. He had gone in 1574 at the invitation of the Greek community to Venice to paint the icons of San Giorgio dei Greci church. In Italy, he was fascinated by the Venetian style of painting. After a few years on Corfu he returned to Crete, where he had a workshop in Candia.

El Greco

Dominikos Theotokopoulos, who became famous in Spain as El Greco ( the Greek), is the most famous emerged from the Cretan School painters. He was the most successful of the many artists who sought a career in Western Europe. However, El Greco was the Byzantine style in his later career far behind.

Angelos Akontatos

Angelos Akotantos was still regarded until recently as a conservative painter of the 17th century, is now, after the discovery of a will of 1436, regarded as an innovative artist who lived until about 1457, and Byzantine and Western style elements combined. His students Angelos Bizamanos and Nicholas Tzafuris ( to 1501 ) were also prominent artists.

Theophanes the Cretan

The well-known as Theophanes the Cretan Theophanes Strelitzas (Greek Θεοφάνης Στρελίτζας Theofanis Strelitsas, about 1500-1559 ) was a Greek monk. He was trained as an icon painter in Heraklion, however, was not active on Crete, but mainly on the Greek mainland and is regarded as the main Greek fresco painters of his time. His frescoes show some western iconographic and stylistic elements, but remain in the Byzantine style, essentially.

Other painters of the Cretan School

• Emmanuel Tzanes ( Εμμανουήλ Τζάνες 1610 - 1690),
• Georgios Klontzas
• Emmanuel Lombardo
• Theodoros Poulakis ( Θεόδωρος Πουλάκης, 1622-1692 ).
• Ioannis Kornaros