The Last Supper, attributed to Michael Damaskinos, Cretan, 16th century

Mikhail Damaskinos (1530/5- 1592/3) was major Cretan painter of the 16^th century, who was born in Heraklion but travelled extensively in Italy and worked for a number of years in Venice. Between 1560 and 1583 he completed a cycle of paintings for the iconostasis of the church of San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice, which can be seen to this day.  It also includes a similar Last Supper above the Royal Doors. Damaskinos has been described as the most “ambidextrous” of the Cretan painters, in the sense that he was equally at ease working in the Byzantine and the Venetian traditions, and amongst the surviving paintings attributed to him, there are works in both styles.

The offered panel, painted in a traditional and archaic style, bears inscriptions and a signature in a beautiful script along the bottom edge suggesting that this was a commission from someone in Chios. The inscription above the Apostles’ heads, “The Mystical Supper”, is probably later and clearly by a different hand.