Angelos Akotantos

Who is Angelos Akotantos?

Angelos Akotantos was a 15th-century Icon-painter and hagiographer who lived and worked at Heraklion, Crete, then part of the Republic of Venice. He was the first hagiographer to sign his name on his icons by writing in Greek: "Χειρ Αγγέλου" which, translated in English, means "By hand of Angelos".

Most known about Akotantos is from his will, written in 1436, which now can be found at the State Archives of Venice. He is the most important Greek painter of the first half of the 15th century when the center of Byzantine art is transferred from the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, to Heraklion the capital of Crete, as a result of the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Akotantos has painted icons of Saint Phanourios who is depicted killing a dragon, similar to Saint George, a local tradition found on icons of the 15th century in Crete.