Dissertation committee:
Μαρία Κωνσταντουδάκη- Κιτρομηλίδου, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια Βυζαντινής Αρχαιολογίας, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ευγενία Δρακοπούλου, Διευθύντρια Ερευνών, Τομέας Νεοελληνικών Ερευνών, Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών Γεώργιος Πάλλης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Βυζαντινής και Μεταβυζαντινής Αρχαιολογίας και Τέχνης, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Αναστασία Δρανδάκη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Βυζαντινής Αρχαιολογίας και Τέχνης, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ.
Ιωάννα Μπίθα, Διευθύνουσα του Κέντρου Έρευνας της Βυζαντινής και Μεταβυζαντινής Τέχνης της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών.
Σπυρίδων Πλουμίδης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Νεότερης και Σύγχρονης Ιστορίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ.
Ιωάννα Στουφή-Πουλημένου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογίας και Επιγραφικής, Θεολογική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ.
Summary:
In the Zagori region the favorable historical conditions formed a suitable economic and cultural environment for the flourishing of religious art. The dependence on the neighboring city of Ioannina, the self-governing privileges that the region received since the early post-Byzantine years, and, finally, the significant sponsorship of church and communities set the conditions for the transfer of important artists from other regions and the formation of a local artistic tradition.
The starting point of the religious painting of Zagori are the frescoes of the monastery of Agia Paraskevi of Monodentri (1414), a work connected with the artistic centre of Kastoria. Corresponding origins are reflected in three icons of the late 15th century and in one of the sixth decade of the 16th century, in which a direct connection with the art of northwestern Macedonia is recognized.
Then, over the 16th century, the effect of the conquests of the so-called “School of Thebes” or “School of the northwestern Greece”, that flourishes in neighboring Ioannina, is felt in the art of the region. These influences include the frescoes of the temples of Agios Nikolaos at Kalyvia in Elafotopos and of the Dormition of the Virgin in Skamneli (last decades of the 16th century), as well as the icons from the villages of Kalota and Vradeto.
Since the last quarter of the 16th century, the arrival of the painters from Linotopi, a village in the mountain range of Grammos, has been decisive for local artistic developments. Recent research has linked the frescoes of the temple of Agios Demetrios in Palatitsia (1570), the first signed mural ensemble of the workshop, to the frescoes in the monastery of Evangelistria of Kastraki (1575/6) in western Zagori, a correlation that, in our opinion, is also confirmed by the comparative study of the icons of the two monuments.
In the last decade of the 16th century the art of the painters from Linotopi seems to have already gained prestige in Zagori’s ordering circles, so that they were assigned with the painting of at least five iconostasis in the villages of Kato and Ano Pedina, Elafotopos, Koukouli and Negades.
During the 17th century their activity in the region continued uninterruptedly until the sixth decade. They are the dominant artistic group and undertake the frescoing as well as the painting of iconostasis and icons, sometimes signing their works. Among the artists of the group, Michael is currently working in the region producing portable works in Elafotopos, Vitsa, Monodentri and Kleidonia, his son Konstantinos with works in Koukouli, Ano Pedina and Elafotopos, while the hand of another member of the group is detected, that of Nikolaos (IV), to whom we attribute icons and a section of an iconostasis in the villages of Vitsa, Negades and Monodentri.
From the sixth until the eighth decade of the 17th century the Grammostians Ioannis Skoutaris and brothers Demetrios (II) and Georgios dominate in the art of Zagori. They work on frescoes, iconostasis and icons in the villages of Kleidonia, Aristi, Skamneli, Fragades, Koukouli and Vradeto.
In the opposite of the workshops from the Grammos region, after the seventh decade of the 17th century the art of the wider area of Ioannina is influenced by perceptions with effects from the western art of Baroque, solid foundations on the iconography of the Cretan School, but also love for decorative pretentiousness with origins in the School of Thebes. The main representative of these tendencies is the priest Athanasios from Greveniti of Zagori, who signs with his partners the frescoes in the monastery of Votsa (1680) and to whom we attribute an icon in Kalota (1677), probably dedicated at first to the metochion of the monastery of Votsa, the monastery of Vissiko. The secularized art of Athanasios did not continue. Ioannis, who signs as “pitiable iconographer” the despotic icon of Virgin Mary on the iconostasis of the monastery of Votsa and was definitely his student, attributes synthetic principles of the Cretan School with a conservative idiom, while he uses iconographic patterns of the Macedonian palaeologian tradition for his biographical icons. Another four icons are attributed to his art in the villages of Monodentri, Fragades and Koukouli, mostly in metochia of the monastery of Votsa.
In two villages, Vitsa and Fragades, two pairs of icons are connected to the special idiom of the Cypriot painter Onoufrios. The icon of Christ in the temple of Agios Nikolaos in Vitsa, has already been attributed to the artist, with considerable doubt, though, by research to date, while the other three are unpublished. External features , such as the shape of nimbus and the formation of the gilded ground with elaborate pastry patterns, as well as the particular style, in which influences from the Cypriot painting of the 16th century co-exist with the anti-classical linear treatment that characterizes the contemporary art of today’s south Albania, advocate for attributing these four works to Onoufrios.
By the few signed works in Zagori is inferred the action of two painters, whose work has not been thoroughly collected and studied by research to date, that of Chatzipetros from Russia (Koukouli 1679) and of Lampros from Zitsa (Skamneli 1694). On the fringes of the action of the workshops and of the painters known by their signature , a series of anonymous works of the period represent the wide category of peripheral art with an “anti-classical” character, model eclecticism and simplification of artistic means, that dominated the mainland countryside in the 17th century.
The transfer of renowned painters and workshops, the constant inspiration from established standards, the immediate assimilation of current trends signal the dynamic artistic environment of the Zagori region, that in the coming centuries will form a local art production with a wide refulgence.
