ABSTRACT
The Cretan artist Georgios Klontzas tells the story of Mohammed’s life on three occasions. The first of these is on folios 38v-55v of an Apocalypse and History that Klontzas created in 1590-92, which is in Venice. The second is found in the fragmentary remains of a more luxurious manuscript that may date from the late 1570s to the 1590s and is in Moscow. The third instance is found in a now-destroyed pair of images from the Museum of Art and History in Geneva. The Geneva panel makes use only of the Greek sources, drawing these together into a single if complex image. The outcome is a painting that, when read in the light of the context provided by Klontzas’ other treatments of this subject, makes several significant points. Klontzas connects Ismael, Mohammed, and the Saracens outside the walls of the monastery visually by their costume and their skin colour.
