Tracing the cross-currents of Byzantine and Renaissance influences in the workshops of 15th and 16th century Crete—the setting in which El Greco was trained—the exhibition is the first to focus on the evolution of the multifaceted relationship of Cretan painters with Western art during this rich period. The exhibition, curated for the Onassis Cultural Center by Dr. Anastasia Drandaki, Curator of the Byzantine Collection at the Benaki Museum, Athens, will present 46 exceptional works from public and private collections in Greece, Italy, Russia, the United States and Canada, many of which will be traveling to the U.S. for the first time.

According to Dr. Drandaki, “The icon painters in the workshops on Crete in the 15th and 16th centuries were renowned for their skill in painting impeccable panels not only in the traditional Byzantine manner but also in a style inspired by Western models. Although a dialogue with Western painting was not new to Byzantine art, a number of special factors undoubtedly helped to encourage the immersion of Cretan artists in Western iconography and style, especially after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.”

At the core of the exhibition are eleven superb icons from the Collection of Ecclesiastical Art, Saint Catherine of the Sinaites, Heraklion, Crete. Founded around the 10th century as a dependency of the monastery of the same name at Mount Sinai, the Church of St. Catherine in Heraklion supported a large and learned monastic community by the 16th century and since 1967 has housed a highly important collection of Orthodox icons and religious objects. Ten of the panels from the Collection of St. Catherine have left Crete only once before, in 1993, for an exhibition in Athens. The eleventh of this group, a Last Supper by Michael Damaskenos, has been outside of Greece only once, for a 1999 El Greco exhibition that traveled to Athens, Madrid and Rome.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Benaki Museum in Athens and the Archdiocese of Crete and it is exclusively funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA). It will be on view at the Onassis Cultural Center, 645 Fifth Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, until February 27. Admission is free. More information can be found at : http://www.onassisusa.org/occ.art.htm