TSAFOURIS, Nikolaos

This icon represents a variant of the “Madre della Consolazione:” here, the Christ-child is holding not the scroll with the Greek quotation, but a golden orb, which is unusual in Byzantine icon-painting. The “invention” of this hitherto unknown Mother-of-God type is attributed to the Cretan painter Nikolaos Tzafoures. According to Cretan documents preserved in the Venetian state archives, Nikolaos Tzafoures (Nicolaus Zafuri) was first mentioned in 1487 in Candia (today’s Herakleion) in Crete, where he lived and worked until about 1500. Little is known about the life of this painter, who was a contemporary of Andreas Ritzos and Andreas Pavias, and in almost all his signed works painted “alla latina”, including purely Catholic themes.

This icon in private ownership is one of the Madre della Consolazione icons signed by the artist. His Latin signature was not discovered until 1999.

Towards the end of the 15th century, a new kind of Mother-of-God icon appeared in Cretan icon-painting. It quickly became very widespread and remained extremely popular with artists and patrons until well into the 17th century. This type is known as the “Madre della Consolazione” (Mother of Consolation) and is distinguished by a striking Italian influence. As in many Italian paintings of the Madonna, we find the fine, diaphanous veil beneath the maphorion (overdress) of the Mother of God instead of the Eastern cap or bonnet. Western too is the way the garment of the Virgin is fastened over the breast with a clasp, and the incuse patterning of the haloes. Typically Venetian is the opulent golden pattern of the Virgin’s garment, which can be seen in similar form on many Venetian Trecento paintings, especially those by Paolo Veneziano and his successors. The Christ-child is holding an open scroll with the (in places heavily abbreviated) Greek inscription: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me”.

While the Virgin is portrayed in a rather naturalistic manner in this Pietà, Christ is somewhat more stylized. We see here his unusual treatment of the angels who appear to bear their breasts and rend their hair in an expression of grief reminiscent of that in Greek tragedy.

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. This fostered a mixture of iconographical motifs, both western and eastern. This icon has been attributed to the hand of Nikolaos Tsafouris (d. 1501), an artist who was active in Crete. He signed several icons, and his name appears in Venetian documents.

In this period a distinctive school of Cretan icon painting had emerged, producing works of a hybrid character, in which Byzantine traditions were modified by Western influences brought to the island by Venetian prints and paintings. The young Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) got his training in the workshop of a local icon painter in Crete.

The triptych depicts the Virgin and Child in the central panel in the manner of ‘Madre della Consolazione’ occurring on other icons, too, painted in Crete. This type may have been established by Nikolaos Tzafouris to whom this triptych can be attributed on stylistic ground, as his painting is characterized by the same combination of Byzantine and Western iconographic and stylistic elements. The left wing portrays the apostles Peter and Paul embracing, a scene associated with the Union of Churches that was proclaimed in 1439. On the right panel two anonymous Western deacons, beardless and with short hair and tonsure, are painted in a Gothic manner. Clothed in red sticharia with gold embroidery, the pair must represent Saints Stephen and Lawrence.