COLLECTIONS / Icons and Wood-Carvings
The Museum's Byzantine and Post-Byzantine icons constitute one of its largest and most important collections. The collection stands out not just by the exceptionally large number of works it contains - ca 3,000 - but also by the wide range of iconographies it covers across the chronological spectrum of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art, which moreover come from all over Greece, Asia Minor, the Balkans and Russia.
There are also 250 diptychs and triptychs in the collection, dating from the 15th to the 19th century. These artefacts were for the most part works of private devotion.
Some woodcarvings, such as three carved wooden sanctuary iconostases from churches in the Ionian Islands and Northern Greece, episcopal thrones, etc. complete the collection.
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Theotokos Glykophilousa (“Episkepsis”)
This particular type of the Virgin, in which the two faces are touching, cheek to cheek, is known as the Glykophilousa. This ... -
The three Hierarchs
The icon had been covered by another depiction of the Three Hierarchs in the post-Byzantine years. When the newer painting wa... -
Double-sided icon with the Crucifixion and the Virgin Hodegetria
The icon, which is the oldest in the museum, has three different layers of painting on the front. From the earliest, dating f... -
Crucifixion
In a golden background, outside the walls of Jerusalem a crowded Crucificion is depicted. The scene is characterized by inten... -
St George and scenes from his life and saints
St George and scenes from his life
St George and scenes from his life
The central figure of St George the Cappadocian on the front is in relief, and scenes from his life are painted in panels aro... -
Virgin Hodegetria
The unusual iconographic features suggest that the icon executed in a Cypriot workshop, at the early 13th c. -
Archangel Michael
Ο ΑΡΧ(ΩΝ) ΜΙΧΑΗΛ Ο ΜΕΓΑC ΤΑΞΙΑΡΧΗ(C) (the Chief [among angels] Michael Grand Taxiarch) is depicted in a formal, frontal pose.... -
Crucifixion
Double-sided icon: Side A: Crucifixion, Side B: Virgin and Child. The nobility and restrained sorrow characteristic of the sl... -
The Hospitality of Abraham
The Hospitality of Abraham. Α biblical theme symbolizing the Holy Trinity. The icon is dated in the 15th c. The figures are n... -
The Dormition of Saint Ephraim the Syrian
The Dormition of Saint Ephraim the Syrian that lived in the 4th c. Portable icon painted by a mid-15th c. Cretan artist. An i... -
Saint Marina
Icon that must have been created in Crete, in the late 14th c. or early 15th c., by an artist closely associated with worksho... -
Jesus Hominum Salvator
Depictions of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Descent into Hell are combined in the initials of the abbreviated Lat... -
Virgin Madre della Consolazione with Saint Francis
The composition follows Italian motifs and was created in the largest post-Byzantine centre of icon production, in Chandax (H... -
St John the Baptist
The saint is depicted in a stony desert, winged and conversing with Christ, who is shown blessing. At the bottom right the sa... -
Virgin “Kardiotissa”
Painted by the Cretan artist Angelos Akotantos. -
The Crucifixion of St Andrew
The icon presents the scene of the Martyrdom of St Andrew who was crucified upside down. It was painted by Michael Damaskenos... -
Saint George the Dragon-Slayer
In the scene Saint George in military dress and on horseback while slaying a winged dragon with his spear. This is the most f... -
The Lamentation
BXM 1560 The Lamentation. This icon is signed by the Cretan artist Emmanuel Lambardos. It reproduces an iconographic type tha... -
Virgin of the Passion
The objects that the angels raise ceremoniously, the cross with the Crown of Thorns, the Nails, the Holy sponge, the Holy Lan... -
The Virgin Brephokratousa Enthroned
An inscription along the bottom edge of the icon informs us that it was painted in 1664 by the Cretan painter Emmanuel Tzanes. -
Saint Theodora
Saint Theodora, the wife of the Iconoclast Emperor Theophilos, seated in a golden throne, holds a scepter and an icon of the ... -
Saint Catherine
Icon with St Catherine. Painted by the Cretan artist Viktor. Second half of the 17th c. -
Saint Christopher (depicted with the head of a dog)
Kermira, Cappadocia St Christopher depicted with the head of a dog. From the 5th century on, it was widely believed in Byzant... -
The Ascension of the Prophet Elijah and scenes from his life
The icon is divided into three bands. The central one depicts the Ascension of the Prophet Elijah to heaven on a golden chari...
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