The Virgin and St Francis of Assisi

1490 · Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens

religious

This icon (an image created as a focal point of religious veneration in the Orthodox Eastern faith) represents the Virgin as 'The Madre della Consolazione' and St Francis of Assisi whose presence on what is ostensibly a Greek icon is unusual, in that he was a saint of the Latin church, not the Orthodox. It can be accounted for, however, by the fact that this icon was made on the island of Crete. For four centuries after 1204, when the Byzantine Empire fell to western attack, Crete was ruled by the Venetians.

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About the Artist

Nikolaos Tsafouris

? – 1501

Greek icon painter who was active in Crete. He signed several icons, and his name appears in Venetian documents. Nikolaos Tzafouris was head of a workshop in Crete, then under Venetian rule and known as the Regno di Candia. He produced small devotional paintings, often signed, to be pedaled by the so called madonneri in Venice and he specialized in images of the Madonna and Child holding a small globe, thought to be imbued with healing properties. The artist combined popular Western imagery with the Byzantine iconography of his homeland.

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