Working drawings of icon painters after the Fall of Constantinople. The Andreas Xyngopoulos portfolio at the Benaki Museum

This book presents the 452 working drawings that compose the Andreas Xyngopoulos portfolio in the Benaki Museum, commented upon and illustrated in their entirety. Mainly intended for creating portable icons, they comprise pricked and imprinted cartoons, painted drawings and sketches, which date from the 17th until the early 20th century. They were produced from portable icons and were used for making identical copies. Their use became widespread in Venetian Crete during an era of mass production of icons.

Translation: Dimitris Saltabassis