Crete, University, Digital library of modern Greek studies from the University of Crete: http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/
Crete. Historical Museum. Heraklion. Historical Museum, frescoes from ruined churches. St Menas Church. Icons by Michael Damaskenos (16th century).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Museum_of_Crete; http://www.historical-museum.gr/en/index.html
Crete. Places of Interest. Islands: Chios: Nea Moni monastery, 11th century mosaics. Monastery was founded between 1042 and 1056 by Constantine Monomachus, after the miraculous discovery of an icon by some shepherds. The mosaics of the Nea Moni represent the summit of Byzantine classical art, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nea_Moni_of_Chios
Crete. Between 1500 and 1669 Crete was one of the principal centres of Byzantine Art. Cretan painters, some of whom sign their work (Theophanes, Antony, Zorzis) founded a school which worked in the monasteries of Mount Athos and the Meteora and was the guiding spirit in the last flowering of Byzantine painting in the sixteenth century. Fifteenth large ensembles of mural painting were realised at Mount Athos between 1535 and 1568 by artists of the Creatan school. Theophanes, its leading light, decorated the churches of the Lavra (1535), and probably also its refectory (1546), and of Stavronikita and of Xenophon (1563). His pupils Euphrosynos, Zorzis and Anthony, his sons Neophytes and Symeon, and other anonymous pupils, decorated the churches of the monasteries of Dionysiu (1543 and 1547), Xenophon (1544), Molyvoklissia (1536), Koutlomousi (1540), Philotheou (1540) and St Paul (1555). The moust considerable and original disciple of the Cretan School is Francescos Catelanos; the paintings of the refectory of Dionysiu (1603?) are the last important productions of the school. Icon painters of the Cretan school include Michael Damaskenos (16th century), Andrea Ricco (c. 1600), Lampardos Tzanes (17th century), Theodore Poulakis (1622-1692). The island ceased to be an artistic centre after it was occupied by the Turks in 1669. The tendencies of this school go back to the Hellenistic traditions of the Byzantine painting, but the immediate models for its compositions belong to Palaeologue art, though they also participate in the other artistic movement of the day, the Macedonian school, which is at once more dramatic and more realistic. Michael Damaskenos´s works date from 1571 to 1591. Icons by Damaskenos are scattered throughout the Orthodox cultural world, at Mount Sinai, the Stavronikita Monastery on Mount Athos, Hosios Loukas, Zante (Museum, Church of St Catherine of Sinai, St Spyridon), Venice (Collection of the Hellenistic Institute, San Giorgio dei Greci), Candia (St Menas church), etc.
