Crete ArtArt on the Greek Island of Crete Crete Art – Minoan 
The island of Crete was home to one of the oldest civilizations in Europe, the Minoans, who thrived on the island as early as 2000 BC. One of the most interesting aspects of this early community was their beautiful artwork. 
The depictions of figures, plants and animals have communicated to us in our modern times through careful work of archaeology. Many of the wall art or frescoes can now be viewed in museums on the island, and at the Minoan sites such as Knossos. Crete Art – Byzantine and Religious Art 
Byzantine art emerges from the fourth century until the fall of Constantinople in 1493. Primarily religious in subject, artists at the Cretan School continued after the fall of Byzantium and this period is also referred to as Post Byzantine art.
Crete has some of the finest examples of Byzantine art in its churches all over the island, and in the following museums.Museum of Religious Art - Monis Odigitrias, Heraklion Centre for Byzantine Art - Ethnikis Antistaseos, Rethymnon Crete Art – Renaissance Painting  One of the most respected painters of the European renaissance – an artist known as El Greco – was born in Crete and studied art in the flourishing Venetian culture of the time, in the city of Heraklion. See our dedicated page about Domenikos Theokotopoulos – El Greco.
The sarikia are woven and knotted by hand by women, mostly now the older women who hold the knowledge of this traditional art. Two villages known for their textiles are Anogia and Kritsa.
It embraces the Muses that have languished petrified on the sacred landscape; the Phaistos Disk; intergalactic travel; Pythagoras' golden proportion of 1 to 1.618; missing Planets; the Labyrinth; the Minotaur. The rocks and stones of certain sacred places are alive with stories to tell. I have believed this since childhood, when my mother would send me on stone-hunts, to keep me busy; and later when as an adult I travelled the world continuously on a spiritual quest, looking for my muse. I found some of what I was looking for on Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, and travelled back there repeatedly for the last four years. I scoured the landscape for meaningful mimetoliths, because of the legends and mysteries of the island. I built stone monuments to reflect nature and to please the gods. I encountered others who felt the same passions as myself and interviewed them. I tried to penetrate the ancient secrets within the rocks as I filmed them and spoke to them and became one with them. Then, under the hypnotic spell of all that I had seen and all that I had captured on tape, I imagined mythological truths emerging from these images. I edited the footage myself at home, in true indie fashion, hoping that the language of cinema would add its own impressions and dimensions, and let me share the stories with the audience. " Glimpses of the film can be seen on the
Mimetoliths trailer
and may be purchased
online Crete Art - Prints for you at home...
People and Life in Crete... Getting to Crete; flights, ferries and more... Return from Crete Art to We Love Crete Homepage
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The arts of ceramics, basket weaving, knife making, and hand woven textiles are arts that have been practised on Crete for centuries. One of the most unique hand woven articles is the 
