 Even before the fall of Constantinople there is evidence that leading Byzantine artists were leaving the capital in order to settle in Crete.The migration of Byzantine artists to Crete continued increasingly the next years and reached its peak after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when Crete became "the most important centre of art in the Greek world", influencing artistic developments in the rest of the Greek world.Cretan icons were commissioned for monasteries on Mount Athos and elsewhere.