Nikolaos Gripiotis (; 1465–1525), also known as Nicolò Gripioti, was a Greek painter and teacher. He was a prominent member of the

Cretan school Cretan school describes an important school of icon painting, under the umbrella of post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the fall of Constantinople, beco ...

in the early 1500s, working alongside such practitioners as

Michael Fokas Michael Fokas (; 1473–1504), also known as Migiel Fuca, was a Greek icon painter and art instructor. He came from a prominent family of painters, the founders of the Cretan school; working in this style, Fokas's workshop mass-produced icons for ...

and Giorgio Miçocostantin (Georgios Mitsoconstantinos). No work survives bearing his signature, but documents from the period record thousands of

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s produced by his workshop. Nikolaos's son Ioannis Gripiotis also became a prominent painter. The family was related by marriage to

Arsenius Apostolius Arsenius Apostolius ( or Ἀρσένιος Ἀποστόλης; c. 1468 – 1538) was a Greek scholar who lived for a long time in Venice. He was also bishop of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese. Life Arsenius Apostolius was born about 1468 in Crete ...

History

Nikolaos Gripiotis was born in Heraklion, on the island of Crete. His father was a jeweler named Marino. Nikolaos and his wife Maria, the sister of

, had three children, Kassandra, Francheskina, and Ioannis. Francheskina married Mattheos de Mediolano. Preserved documents describe Gripiotis's activity as a professional painter from 1480 to 1525. The peak of his career was a commission for 700 icons in 1499, shared between Gripiotis, Michael Fokas and George Mitsoconstantinos. 400 of the paintings were to be in the Greek style, based upon Byzantine prototypes, and 300 in the Italian style, based upon Western interpretations of the Byzantine tradition. The works were painted on three different sizes of panel; a record preserves Fokas's order to famous local woodcarver Giorgio Sclavo for a thousand such panels, placed a month before the big commission. On July 4, 1499, Michael Fokas was contracted to paint 100 icons in a month and a half. He also promised 100 more icons painted by Gripiotis. On June 5, 1505, Gripiotis received 6 golden Venetian ducats and 5 superpyras for an icon of Saint Christopher, intended for the chapel of Petros Bono in the Catholic monastery of Saint Peter. Gripiotis also worked as an instructor in the craft of icon painting. In 1493, he accepted Marino Nicola di Giorgio as his student. He signed another contract in 1503, agreeing to train Ioannis Synadenos for four years. Icon painters of the period did not sign their works, and consequently no extant paintings can be attributed to Gripiotis. There may be unidentified products of his workshop among the thousands of contemporary Cretan icons which survive. His signature would have been Χείρ Γριπιώτης or in latin Nicolò Gripioti Pinxit.

Gallery

File:Pittore italo-cretese, cristo, madonna del latte (galactotrophousa) con s. caterina, episodi biblici e santi, xvi-xvii secolo.jpg, Italian Style Cretan Prototype File:Pittore cretese, madonna della tenerezza (glycophilousa), 1490-1510 ca. 02.jpg, Greek Style Cretan Prototype File:Madre della Consolazione, Creto-Venetian, late 15th century.png, Italian Style Cretan Prototype File:Unknown painter - Christ in the Tomb - WGA23483.jpg, Mass Produced Cretan Prototype

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book , last= Kondi, first= B. , author-link= , date= 1989 , title=Τὰ Εθνικὰ Οἰκογενειακὰ Όνόματα στὴν Κρήτη κατὰ τὴ βενετοκρατία (13ος-17ος αἰ.) , trans-title= The Family Names of People Residing in Crete from the 12th-17th Century, url= https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/200286632.pdf , location= Athens GR , publisher= The Public Research Foundation of Byzantine Research, page= , isbn= Cretan Renaissance painters 16th-century deaths 15th-century Greek painters 16th-century Greek painters People from Heraklion (regional unit) Greek icon painters