Biography

Greek icon painter who was active in Crete. He signed several icons, and his name appears in Venetian documents.

Nikolaos Tzafouris was head of a workshop in Crete, then under Venetian rule and known as the Regno di Candia. He produced small devotional paintings, often signed, to be pedaled by the so called madonneri in Venice and he specialized in images of the Madonna and Child holding a small globe, thought to be imbued with healing properties. The artist combined popular Western imagery with the Byzantine iconography of his homeland.