The conservation of Emmanuel Tzanes’ Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well has been sponsored by The Diane Apostolos-Cappadona Trust in Memory of Her Godmother, Helen D. Apostolos

The Icon Museum of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice preserves one of the most important collections of Orthodox icons in the world. Inherited from the historic Greek Orthodox Confraternity of Venice, the collection reflects centuries of artistic exchange between the Byzantine East and the Venetian West. Standing beside the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci, the museum houses exceptional examples of Byzantine and post-Byzantine painting, including works by leading masters of the Cretan School such as Michael Damaskinos, Theodoros Poulakis, and Emmanuel Tzanes. Spanning the 15th to the 18th centuries, the icons allow visitors to trace the evolution of Orthodox art from its Byzantine roots to the richly narrative and visually sophisticated forms that emerged in Venice, making the collection an unparalleled testament to the artistic and spiritual heritage of the Greek community in the city.

Among the highlights of the Icon Museum in Venice is a remarkable cycle of five icons by Emmanuel Tzanes, one of the foremost painters of the 17th-century Greek diaspora. Commissioned in the early 1680s by Andrea Chalichiopulos of Rethymno and donated to the Greek Confraternity in 1698 by his widow, Maria Cagianni, the series depicts five episodes from the life of Christ: The Healing of the Paralytic, The Healing of the Blind Man, Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, The Incredulity of Thomas, and The Greeting of the Myrrh-Bearers. Together, these icons illustrate the Gospel readings for the five Sundays between Easter and Ascension, transforming the liturgical calendar into a sequence of vivid narrative scenes. Today, two of these masterpieces—Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well and The Greeting of the Myrrh-Bearers—are in urgent need of conservation treatment.

Born in Crete and trained in the rich artistic traditions of the post-Byzantine world, Emmanuel Tzanes spent the most accomplished years of his career in Venice, where he emerged as one of the leading painters of the Greek community. After leaving Crete following the Ottoman conquest of Rethymno in 1646, he worked briefly in Corfu before settling permanently in Venice by 1658. Deeply embedded in the city’s Greek Orthodox community, Tzanes served as parish priest of San Giorgio dei Greci while pursuing a distinguished career as a painter, poet, and composer of religious hymns. His art reflects a masterful synthesis of the spiritual intensity of the Cretan School with the narrative richness and pictorial sophistication of 17th-century Venetian painting.

Dated 1689 and signed as “the work of the old priest Emmanuel, known as Bounialis,” the scene unfolds outside the city of Samaria, at Jacob’s Well, where a woman arrives to draw water and encounters Christ, who offers her the living water of eternal life. In Eastern Christian tradition, this woman is remembered as Saint Photini—literally “the Enlightened One.” Recognizing Christ as the Messiah, she became one of the first and most influential witnesses of the Gospel, bringing many of her fellow Samaritans to faith and, according to tradition, later preaching throughout the Roman world until her martyrdom under Emperor Nero. Her story remains a powerful symbol of conversion, revelation, and spiritual transformation.

Tzanes follows the traditional iconography of the subject, placing Christ and Photini on either side of the well, the focal point of their dialogue. Yet the artist enriches the scene with elements that reveal his long immersion in Venetian artistic culture. Beyond the sacred encounter, the landscape unfolds into a luminous panorama of rolling hills and the distant walled city of Samaria, while the apostles approach in small groups through the countryside, adding narrative depth and a sense of lived reality. An especially striking detail is the solitary fisherman, shown at the very moment he hauls a fish from the water, the catch suspended in midair. Rarely included in depictions of this episode, the motif alludes to Christ’s mission as the “fisher of men” and demonstrates Tzanes’s gift for weaving theological meaning into the richly observed world of his paintings.

The detailed landscapes, architectural settings, and expressive figures demonstrate Tzanes’s ability to unite Byzantine tradition with Venetian pictorial culture, making the cycle one of the finest achievements of post-Byzantine painting and a remarkable testament to the spiritual and artistic life of Venice’s Greek Orthodox community.

The gilded surface of the icon shows generalized abrasion and wear of the metal leaf, particularly in exposed areas affected by previous handling and past conservation treatments. Surface deposits—including dust, atmospheric particulates, and greasy residues—are present across the surface, with heavier accumulations in recessed areas and along fracture lines.

The icon also exhibits two major vertical cracks along the panel joins, resulting in lifting, paint instability, and localized losses. Although previous conservation treatment has stabilized the panel structurally, the intervention remains incomplete. Further work is required to finish and level the existing fills, followed by the pictorial integration of the treated areas.

Emmanuel Tzanes (ca. 1610 – 1690)
Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well
1689, oil on panel, gilding
87 x 69 cm

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Chatzidakis, Manolis. Icônes de Saint-George des Grecs et de la Collection de l’Istitut. Venice: Neri Pozza, 1962, pp. 136-139 nos. 115, 157 no. 148

Kazanaki-Lappa, Marina. Arte bizantina e postbizantina a Venezia. Museo di icone dell’Istituto di studi bizantini e postbizantini a Venezia. Villorba (TV): Eurocromlibri Zanotto Editore, 2009, pp. 167-169

Costantoudaki-Kitromilides, Maria. Tzanes, Emmanuel. In Speake, Graham (ed.). Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. 2 vols, London-Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000, vol. II (L-Z), pp. 1681-1682