Download PDF | Intercultural Encounters in Medieval Greece after 1204 The Evidence of Art and Material Culture, , Brepols 2022.
576 Pages
Introduction
The present volume is based primarily on the papers delivered at a round table entitled ‘Byzantines and Latins in the Greek Mainland and the Islands (13th–15th centuries): Archaeological and Artistic Evidence of an Interrelation’, convened during the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies held in Belgrade in August 2016.1 The key issue that connected the contributions was the cross-cultural interaction and contacts between the two ethnicities, confessions and cultures as refected in the art and material culture of Medieval Greece.2
There is no doubt that over the last 30 years the history of Medieval Greece in the afermath of the Fourth Crusade has been a feld of intense research activity.3 Political developments, social life, economic activities and institutions have been discussed in a number of publications, which have paid particular atention to the relations and the cultural exchanges between the diferent ethnic and religious groups, mainly Byzantines and Latins that lived together in the Latin polities of Romania from the thirteenth to the ffeenth centuries.
Despite this fourishing of interest, the art and material culture of the Crusader states in the southern Greek mainland and the Aegean has been represented in a rather piecemeal fashion, scatered throughout these more wide-ranging approaches to the period.5 Tis was due, among other things, to the fact that the impact of the presence of Westerners on the artistic activity of medieval Greece was not a central issue in the study of the art and archaeology of the region. This perception played a crucial role in shaping the research interests and perspectives of scholars. Thus, the few surviving works of Crusader architecture were treated as examples of the Western architectural tradition and studied in isolation from all other buildings of the same period in the region.6 On the other hand, Romanesque or Gothic elements adopted in the local ecclesiastical architecture, were characterized as ‘Western infuences’ and considered to be limited only to specifc formal features that did not alter the ‘purity’ of the Byzantine architectural forms, or as Charalambos Bouras put it: ‘Indeed, the random and eclectic addition of Frankish architectural forms represents nothing more than the intensifcation of a tendency toward variety.
Similarly, in the case of monumental painting contact with the art of the West was mostly identifed in minor details, usually iconographic themes of a pragmatic nature that did not afect the Οrthodox character of Byzantine iconography and style.8 Ofen newly introduced iconographic and stylistic elements in painting in these areas that seemed ‘foreign’ to the local – Byzantine – artistic tradition were considered the result of contact with Western art, without specifc historical analysis. Though there were exceptions to this – as, for example, the article by Sharon Gerstel on the iconography of equestrian saints in the Peloponnese and that of Stella Papadaki-Oekland on a group of wall paintings in Crete with Western iconography and style, and the study on the so-called eclectic trend in monumental painting in Rhodes under the Hospitallers by Elias Kollias, in which the question of Western ‘borrowings’ was approached from a historical and social point of view9 – the more general tendency in studying the monumental painting of the areas under Latin rule was basically to describe them as ‘Western infuences’ on the local artistic production. This approach has been revised in the past few years and more recent scholarship views the art and architecture of these regions as a single entity and atempts to interpret it with reference to the new historical and social circumstances, which difered from one place to another. This change in methodology frst appears in the study of architectural remains. Typical examples are Maria Georgopoulou’s book on the urban planning and landscape of cities in Venetian Crete and Olga Gratziou’s study of the ecclesiastical architecture of the island in the period from the thirteenth to the late ffeenth century, in which the combined examination of the Venetian buildings and Byzantine churches vividly illustrates the co-existence of the two dogmatic communities on the island.10 A similar turn has taken place in the study of the Frankish Peloponnese, especially the north-western part, where the Latin presence predominated.
The studies of Heather E. Grossman and Demetrios Athanasoulis are indicative of the new research directions. Building on their doctoral theses, these scholars have contributed a great deal to both the systematic recording and highlighting of the architectural treasures of the area and to raising new questions and elaborating new methodological approaches.11 The results of the work of the local Ephorates of Antiquities also contributed to scholars’ renewed interest in the Frankish Morea. The excavations in the citadel at Glarentza, the research and restoration works at Chlemoutsi Castle and the study on the excavation fnds from the basilica of St Francis in Glarentza, Chlemoutsi Castle and other Latin-held sites of Elis have brought to light rich new material, ofering a holistic view of the material remains of the region that was the administrative and economic centre of the Principality of Achaia.12 New material has also come to light through restoration works in Messenia carried out by the competent Ephorate of Antiquities.13
With regard to monumental painting the artistic production of Venetian Crete was another area in which the question of Western infuence has once again become part of the academic debate in the last decade.14 And this is not unrelated to the constantly expanding literature on the monumental painted programmes of the period. Vasiliki Tsamakda and Angeliki Lymberopoulou have brought this subject into the spotlight in a more systematic way, but from diferent points of view and sometimes coming to diferent conclusions.15 Lymberopoulou has also studied the group of ‘a la latina’ icons of the Cretan school, i.e. works from ffeenth- to seventeenth-century Cretan workshops that are characterized by Italian Gothic style and iconography.16 These works have been at the heart of the study of Cretan icons since the 1970s, when Manolis Chatzidakis revised the earlier opinions that atributed them to an Italo-Greek school of painting centred on Venice in a series of articles.17 A considerable number of important studies on the so-called ‘Italo-Cretan’ icons have been published by scholars such as Maria Constantoudaki-Kitromilides, Nano Chatzidakis, Maria Vassilaki, Maria Kazanaki-Lappa, and others.18 Nevertheless, connecting them with the island’s monumental painting remained only a desideratum for research.19 Tis was an issue tackled by Anastasia Drandaki. Researching the hybrid character of ffeenth-century Cretan icons, she compared it with contemporary and earlier painting in churches on the island, looking for the social space these works were intended for, thus puting the question on a historical basis and broadening the discussion.20
The complex topic of the Italianate elements in Cretan icon painting was recently discussed by Michele Bacci, who examined it in a broader geographical, historical and cultural context that embraces the entire region from Venice to the Eastern Mediterranean.21 Furthermore, Venetian Crete has also revealed new archaeological material. The seting up of the conferences on Archaeological Work in Crete organized by the Ephorates of Antiquities and the University of Crete has made the frst results of excavations, feldwork and researcher programmes available to the academic community and several studies have been published in the proceedings of these conferences concerning the material remains of the Venetian period.22 In addition, research projects, such as, for example, the programme on stone carving and sculpture in Venetian Crete, organized by Olga Gratziou at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies, and Anastasia Yangaki’s project on the immured ceramic vessels in the churches of Crete, focusing on specifc categories of artefacts, have enriched our knowledge of the material culture of the time.23
Finally, architectural remains, sculpture, monumental paintings, icons, potery and other objects from Hospitaller Rhodes have been the subject of a long series of doctoral dissertations and publications by the archaeologists of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese in the last ffeen years. Thus, the material culture of the island during the rule of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem is now emerging in vivid detail.24 All this new material encourages us to begin new discussions on how best to understand the complex social scene that developed in Medieval Greece and the sixteen contributors to this book have taken up this challenge. In their papers they represent these new tendencies in the research on the artistic creation of Latin Greece, including the production of songs and music, an issue that has been only rarely investigated so far,25 and present new archaeological material, or old and wellknown artistic works viewed from a new angle.
They also explore the reactions of the Byzantines to the religious and cultural challenges of the time and the way they lived side by side with the Latins tracing the mechanisms that led to the emergence of the new multi-faceted world of the Latin East. There are fourteen essays in all, arranged in three parts corresponding to diferent thematic unities. In Part I: Tracing the Latin Identities and the Role of the Mendicants fve essays shed light on the presence of Westerners in Latin Greece, mainly through their artistic activities, patronage, and the traces they have lef on the material culture of the area. The frst essay by Michalis Olympios (University of Cyprus), entitled ‘Architecture, Use of Space, and Ornament in the Mendicant Churches of Latin Greece: An Overview’, ofers an overview of the Latin religious foundations in Frankish Greece, concentrating on mendicant ecclesiastical architecture.
Typology, use of space, interior partitions, furnishings and ornament of the mendicant churches in Euboea, the Peloponnese, and Crete are among the aspects examined. Emphasis is placed on the fne balance between respect for the order’s rules on simplicity and avoidance of excess in size and extravagant decoration and the congregation’s needs in respect of burial and commemoration within the friars’ churches. In her essay entitled ‘Refections of Mendicant Spirituality in the Monumental Painting of Crete in the Late Medieval Period (13th–15th centuries)’ Vicky Foskolou (University of Crete) examines three Western iconographic subjects appearing in Cretan churches. The giant fgure of St Christopher carrying the infant Christ on his shoulder, the fayed St Bartholomew, and the extraordinary depiction of the Trinity as the Trone of Grace are analysed in terms of their iconography; their models and parallels are found in earlier and contemporary Italian works. The theological views, texts, and practices behind their creation are also investigated. The common element in all three of these examples is the fact that they are faithful copies of religious works, ofen associated with the mendicant orders and more specifcally the Franciscans. On this basis the atractive proposition was put forward that the Western religious orders helped to disseminate these particular iconographies to Venetian Crete and that the later are yet another indication of the important role the orders played in the religious life of the island. The next essay is ‘Art, Identity, and the Franciscans in Crete’, by Nickiphoros Tsougarakis (Edge Hill University).
The author discusses two documents produced in 1653 by a Capuchin friar in Crete on the occasion of disputes within the Franciscan order, mirroring a medieval Franciscan tradition of appealing to eastern authority to resolve their debates. In addition, he points, most interestingly, to the description in these documents of old paintings encountered in the mendicant churches of St Francis and St Peter Martyr in Candia. The next essay, entitled ‘Saint George “of the English”: Byzantine and Western Encounters in a Chapel of the Fortifcations of Rhodes’ by Ioanna Bitha (Academy of Athens) and Anna-Maria Kasdagli (Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese), presents a case-study of a unique monument in Rhodes that has not been systematically studied before. Nestled in a Byzantine tower in the town’s sea wall, the chapel, whose original Byzantine murals are pointed out here for the frst time, is remarkable for its use of heraldry and for the successive layers of wall paintings dating from the Byzantine period to the early sixteenth century. It demonstrates continuous worship and successive patronage by diferent Western patrons, including some English noblemen, under Hospitaller rule. The last essay in this section by Dimitris Kountouras (Ionian University ) entitled ‘Western Music and Poetry at the Kingdom of Tessalonica: Music and Historiography of the Fourth Crusade’ deals with a lesser known aspect of Latin artistic activity in Frankish Greece. The author, a musician and musicologist himself, presents the work of two troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras and Elias Cairel from the entourage of the king of the Latin Kingdom of Tessalonica, Boniface of Monferrat, a rich source of historical information. In Part II: Social Transformations and Mutual Approaches: The Evidence of Archaeology and Material Culture, the focus shifs to the changes and transformations that the coexistence of the Latins and the local population brought to the society and everyday life in the southern Greek mainland and the islands. In her essay ‘Imported Projects, Local Skills, and the Emergence of a “Cretan Gothic”’, Olga Gratziou (University of Crete) presents examples of the sculpture developed in Crete in the frst three centuries of Venetian rule. A fruitful research area for cultural exchange, these works of sculpture demonstrate clearly both the stages in the emergence of a ‘Cretan Gothic’ style and the process through which it was appropriated by local crafsmen. Based on a long-term research project on ‘Western Art in Crete in the Venetian Period’, directed by the author at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies in Rethymno, Gratziou examines architectural members and fgurative religious sculptures of the ‘Cretan Gothic’ style and discusses issues relating to its dissemination in the countryside and its survival in simplifed forms up to the seventeenth century. The next two essays are dedicated to potery fnds from the Greek mainland (Peloponnese) and the islands (Rhodes). This category of artefacts from this period has been the subject of intensive research in recent years and its systematic study has revealed a plethora of information on local production, imports, commercial routes, and the tastes and fnancial status of those living in both the urban, ofen multiethnic and cosmopolitan centres, and in the countryside, mostly inhabited by Greeks. In the essay entitled ‘Glazed Potery in Late Byzantine Morea (13th–15th centuries): Cross-Cultural Tableware with Multiple Connotations’, Anastasia Vassiliou (Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolis) focuses on the ceramic evidence found at various sites in the Peloponnese dating from the thirteenth to the ffeenth centuries. In addition to a systematic presentation of the main local Moreot productions, the imported Byzantine glazed potery as well as other imported, mostly Italian, glazed wares, she discusses issues of distribution, recipients and the impact of Western ceramics on Byzantine potery production. Furthermore, the author observes that by the mid-thirteenth century the Byzantine production centres in the Peloponnese were, with few exceptions, small scale, targeting a local clientele, while in the Latin-occupied urban centres of the Morea, especially the ports, the ceramics were predominantly imported from Italy. Conversely, the hinterland, even in areas under Latin control, appears almost unafected by potery imports. The issue of imported ceramics, unearthed in archaeological excavations within the medieval town of Rhodes and dating from the early thirteenth century up to the Otoman conquest in 1522, is highlighted by Maria Michailidou (Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese) in the next essay entitled ‘Potery Finds in the Medieval Town of Rhodes (1204–1522): Insights on a Multicultural, Cosmopolitan Society’. The author examines Late Byzantine and early Post-Byzantine glazed wares imported from Byzantine areas, such as Constantinople, Cyprus and Lemnos, Eastern ceramics mainly produced in Syrian workshops, as well as Italian and Spanish tablewares imported from various centres of production. The evidence of the potery reveals the signifcance of Rhodes in trans-Mediterranean trade and its importance as a staging post on the pilgrim route to the Holy Land. In addition, it ofers precious insights into the cosmopolitan character of the town of Rhodes especially in the Hospitaller period and reveals the tastes and eclecticism of its urban community. The fnal essay in this part, ‘Dress Accessories and Sartorial Trends in the Principality of Achaia (1205–1428): Evidence from the Frankish Castles of Chlemoutsi and Glarentza’ by Eleni Barmparitsa (Ephorate of Antiquities of Corinthia), concentrates on a litle-known and rarely studied element of everyday life in Frankish Greece. The author presents metal accessories – buckles and belt components, butons, pins, and lace chapes, etc. – found in the excavations in the princely castle of Chlemoutsi and in Glarentza, the important port constructed by the Franks which developed into the commercial, economic, and political hub of the principality.
The archaeological evidence, combined with the sparse writen and pictorial sources available, refects, as the author points out, the dress codes of the afuent inhabitants of the principality, mainly Latins. In addition, she connects the archaeological evidence with the Western European sartorial trends introduced to the principality soon afer their emergence in Western European urban centres thanks to the powerful Italian merchants who predominated in Glarentza. Gradually wealthy Greek citizens in urban centres, such as Mystras, adopted the sartorial choices of the Latins and by the middle of the fourteenth century dress codes in the cities and towns ceased to represent distinctive ethnic identities. The geographical boundaries and timeframe covered in Part III: Cultural Interactions and Byzantine Responses: The Evidence of Architecture, Murals, and Icon Painting, extend from thirteenth-century Frankish Messenia and Mystras, as capital of the Byzantine Morea, to ffeenth-century Hospitaller Rhodes. In his essay entitled ‘Cultural Interactions between East and West: The Testimony of Tree Orthodox Monasteries in Tirteenth-Century Frankish Messenia’, Michalis Kappas (Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia) examines thirteenth-century frescoes uncovered during recent restorations in three churches of Messenia, which testify to cross-cultural interaction in the Latin-held part of the Peloponnese. Central to the discussion are the paintings at Andromonastiro, one of the most important Orthodox monasteries in the Frankish Morea. Certain decorative details betray Western infuence, while the discovery of a painted feur-de-lys in the scene of the Pentecost provides, according to the author, some basis for supposing that the ruling family of the Villehardouin was involved in the commissioning of the decoration. Furthermore, the murals of the narthex of Samarina church as well as the remains of the painted decoration in the Ellinika Monastery are characterized by a certain amalgamation of Byzantine and Western elements at the meeting-point of several artistic traditions. In the next essay entitled ‘Politics of Equilibrium: Gothic Architectural Features at Mystras (1361–71), Cypriot Models, and the Role of Isabelle de Lusignan’, Aspasia Louvi-Kizi (independent scholar) discusses the Frankish architectural features atested in two fourteenth-century monastic foundations at Mystras, the Peribleptos and the Pantanassa, and specifcally in the building phase that can be dated to the decade 1361–71 and atributed to the patronage of the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos and his wife, Isabelle de Lusignan. While this patronage is well established in the scholarly literature with regard to the Peribleptos, as concerns the Pantanassa the author is the frst to assign the Gothic elements to a phase of the building which can be linked to the patronage of the same couple and precedes that of Ioannes Phrangopoulos which she dates to 1442/43.
Most of these Western architectural features fnd their closest parallels in the Gothic churches of Nicosia, where Isabelle de Lusignan kept close ties with the House of the Lusignan kings of Cyprus. Their implementation at Mystras should be seen, according to the author, in the light of the ruling couple’s policies on maintaining religious and political equilibrium within the Despotate and the Empire at large. The artistic developments that took place in Rhodes, which was governed by the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem from 1309 until 1522, are the subject of the next two essays. Te artistic evidence from the cosmopolitan Rhodes of the Hospitaller period demonstrates complex, cross-cultural interaction in respect of both iconography and style that created a synthesis of local and imported features. Bearing in mind the three diferent artistic currents that have already been recognized in scholarly research – the Western, the Byzantine and the ‘Eclectic’ – both of the essays in this volume concerning late Hospitaller Rhodes support the view that Rhodes probably had, at least in the ffeenth century, its own local, high-quality icon production in an eclectic style, close to similar stylistic trends developed in Crete and Cyprus. Focusing on two exceptional templon icons from Lindos demonstrating eclectic features, Nikolaos Mastrochristos (independent scholar) and Angeliki Katsioti (Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese) discuss the production of icons in ffeenth-century Rhodes in their essay ‘Reconstructing the Artistic Landscape of Rhodes in the Fifeenth Century: The Evidence of Painting from Lindos’. Afer analysing how this difers from that of major centres in the Mediterranean, such as Crete and Cyprus, they assign both Lindos icons to a local Rhodian workshop. They also discuss artistic activity, including wall paintings and icons, in Lindos, the second most important and best preserved medieval setlement of the island. Focusing on an early sixteenth-century icon of the Annunciation in the Collection of the Holy Metropolis of Kos, which copies to a great extent the Annunciation icon in the Municipal Gallery of Vicenza, in her essay entitled ‘Permeable Boundaries of Artistic Identity: The Origin of a Fifeenth-Century Annunciation’, Konstantia Kefala (Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese) discusses the so-called eclectic trend in Rhodian art in this period. Tis hybrid trend combines Byzantine artistic traits and features introduced from Western art. She points to the difculties involved in assigning an artwork to a specifc workshop with any certainty and proposes a third possible place of origin for the icon now in Vicenza, in addition to Crete and Cyprus, that is Hospitaller Rhodes, which also played an important role in the artistic experimentation of the ffeenth century. In brief, both of the essays dealing with icon painting in ffeenth-century Hospitaller Rhodes ofer fresh insights into the artistic and ideological climate which developed in the multi-ethnic and multicultural societies of Eastern Mediterranean territory under Latin rule. In the last contribution to Part III, ‘Preaching, the Role of the Apostles, and the Evidence of Iconography in East and West: Byzantine Responses to the “Challenges” from the Latin Church afer 1204’, Sophia Kalopissi-Verti (University of Athens) examines iconographic choices in Late Byzantine church decoration that can be interpreted as reactions or responses to Latin doctrine, papal policies and the missionary activities of the mendicant orders in the East. More specifcally, the author focuses on iconographic themes related to the apostles and their veneration and tries to interpret them within their historical, geographical, and religious contexts. Based on new or litle-known archaeological and art historical evidence this volume ofers new insights into the artistic, cultural, and everyday activities of the hybrid society that emerged in Greek lands afer 1204. Castles and walled towns were erected by the Latins in the conquered regions, while Byzantine towns, especially ports, afected by the new trade routes and the new geopolitical conditions, gradually developed into multi-ethnic, multicultural, and cosmopolitan centres open to mutual cultural interaction and artistic appropriation or assimilation. The countryside in both Byzantine and Latin-held regions, mostly inhabited by Greeks, remained more conservative and tended to adhere to Byzantine traditions.
Trying to maintain a balance between atempts at rapprochement with the West, especially in periods of growing external danger, and a more adversarial policy, primarily in relation to doctrinal maters, Byzantine ofcial state and ecclesiastical policy ofen responded to papal claims by advancing the origins of their own centuries-old tradition. It is our hope that this volume will contribute to the ongoing scholarly dialogue on a crucial topic, the relations between East and West and their refection in art and culture in Late Medieval Greece. Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to the members of the editorial board, Professors Michael Altripp and Christos Stavrakos and Dr Lars Martin Hofmann, for accepting this volume in the series Byzantioς, Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization and particularly our colleague Professor Christos Stavrakos for his continuous support and encouragement. Tanks, are also due to the two anonymous readers for their insightful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank Michael Stork for his meticulous editing of the texts. And fnally special thanks go to The Athanasios and Marina Martinou Foundation, which underwrote the editing costs for this publication.
Vicky Foskolou and Sophia Kalopissi-Verti
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