14 Facts About Cretan School

Cretan School describes an important school of icon painting, under the umbrella of post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall of Constantinople, becoming the central force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

The Cretan artists developed a particular style of painting under the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions and movements; the most famous product of the school, El Greco, was the most successful of the many artists who tried to build a career in Western Europe, and the one who left the Byzantine style farthest behind him in his later career.

Cretan School icons were commissioned for monasteries on Mount Athos and elsewhere.

Until it fell to the Turks in 1522, the Cretan school was rivalled by the smaller and less significant community of artists in Rhodes.

Production of icons at these levels seems to have led to a glut in the market, and in the following two decades there is much evidence that the Cretan School trade declined significantly, as the European demand had been reduced.

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The fame of the most prominent Cretan School painters spread throughout Greece, the Mediterranean and Europe.

Fortunately for art historians, many Cretan School painters adopted the practice, perhaps as early as Western painters, of signing their work, which was not a traditional Byzantine practice.

Theophanes the Cretan School was a relatively conservative Cretan School artist, whose first dated work is from 1527, and all of whose known works were done on the mainland or smaller islands.

Cretan School was the most important Greek wall painter of his day, incorporating some Western iconographic and stylistic elements, but remaining essentially Byzantine in spirit.

Cretan School left for Venice a few years later, and never returned to Crete.

The Late Cretan School was characterized by prototypes set forth by Michael Damaskinos and Georgios Klontzas.

Cretan School painted Catherine of Alexandria with a wheel and a burning bush for the iconostasis of the god-trodden Saint Catherine's Monastery.

The painting was copied by numerous artists of the Late Cretan School and serves as a prototype for the depiction of Saint Catherine of Alexandria until today.

Many Cretan School artists migrated to the Heptanese or Western Europe to enjoy the artistic freedom.