(active in Corfu, documented 1664)
Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki on horseback surrounded by scenes from his life:
(above) The Encounter of Saint Demetrius with Emperor Maximilian; The Arrest of Saint Demetrius; Saint Demetrius blesses Nestor;
(below) Nestor kills Lyaeus; The Martyrdom of Saint Demetrius; The Burial of Saint Demetrius;
signed and inscribed on the reverse: IC XC NI KA / XEIP ΓεωρΓ[…] / Δαµιστρά [Jesus Christ Conquers / the Hand of Georg(…) / Damistra],
tempera on panel, gold ground, 47.5 x 36.5 cm, in a painted 17th century frame with Marian scenes and the symbols of the Evangelists in the corners

Provenance:
art market, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Venice, Pinacoteca Manfrediniana, Seminario Patriarcale-Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, San Demetrio di Giorgio da Mistra, ed. by A. Donati, S. Marchioni, 26 October 2019 – 6 January 2020 (as Giorgio da Mistra)

Literature:
A. Donati, L’icona della vita di San Demetrio firmata dal pittore Giorgio da Mistra, in: The Art Master, no. 4, 2020, pp. 114-133 (as Giorgio da Mistra);
E. H. Knight, Analisi delle tecniche di esecuzione dell’icona di San Demetrio, in: The Art Master, no. 4, 2020, pp. 134-139 (as Giorgio da Mistra);
M. Stroyanova, Giorgio Damistra (1650-?), Theodoro Poulakis (1620-1692) e il Barocco Levantino, in: Annali di Ca’Foscari. Serie Orientale, no. 56, 2020, pp. 10-37 (as Giorgio da Mistra)

We are grateful to Andrea Donati for his help in cataloguing the present painting.
We are also grateful to Maria Paphiti for reviewing the cataloguing.

This icon depicting Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki on horseback surrounded by scenes from his life is the only known signed work by Georgios Damistras.

Georgios Damistras was the pupil of Theodoros Poulakis (1620–1692 ?). A contract from 1664 records that he was entrusted by his father to study in the studio of Poulakis and the contract was signed on the island of Corfu (Kerkyra) by Poulakis and Georgios Damistras’ father, Marinos (see A. Stravopoulou-Makri, The Presence of the artist Theodoros Poulakis in Corfu (In Greek), in: Cretan Chronicles, 1988-90, pp. 212-223). When Georgios Damistras entered Poulakis’ studio he was in Corfu, but the contract engaged him to follow his master to Venice and to the Levant.

The present icon can be dated to 1670–75. It is evidence of the artistic maturity Georgios Damistras attained in a few years of apprenticeship in Poulakis’ studio. His style is among the most original artistic production of the time, which combined the traditional icon techniques together with the adaptation of Western influences. In his post-Byzantine pictorial language, Damistras reveals his response to the realism of contemporary Western European painting that were popularized via the dissemination of prints in Venice and its colonies.

The features of the figures represented, and the characteristic manner of signing the work on the back Δαµιστρά [Damistra] beneath a red cross (see fig. 1), in a manner typical of notaries, suggest that Georgios Damistras was an intellectual. The Annunciation in the Museo Correr, Venice (inv. no. c.n. 533), until now assigned to the studio of Poulakis might be attributable to him.

The figure of Saint Demetrius in the present painting can be compared to the warrior saints depicted in the icon attributed to Theodoros Poulakis conserved in the National History Museum, Tirana, inv. no. T8 (see M. Stroyanova, I rapporti artistici tra Venezia, l’Albania e il Levante alla fine del XVII secolo, in: Annali di Ca’Foscari, 2006, p. 291).

The icon of Saint Demetrius is placed within a wooden frame painted with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, including the Nativity, Annunciation and Dormition together with symbols of the Evangelists, probably executed by a collaborator of Georgios Damistras.