The Landscape of Medieval Greece 331
In our existing frame of mind it is hard to conceptualise a changing relation-
ship between the imported art form and the region, nor is there space to
accommodate the possible absorption of local forms and artists within the
process of artistic creation particularly because we can see no form devoid
of political meaning. Not all iconographic or stylistic elements that suggest
to us a western pedigree should be taken as a direct use of a western artist,
however. The Byzantine churches of Perivleptos and Pantanassa in Mistra dis-
play on their exterior façades architectural sculptures (fleur-de-lys patterns or
rampant lions) associated with the Franks as late as 1428 in the case of the
Pantanassa (Figure 10.1).11 There are also Greek Orthodox churches that display
western features in their outlook: ribbed vaulting, pointed arches and barrel
vaults, elaborate sculptural decoration on the façades or the capitals, window
tracery, and carved consoles.12
11 Doula Mouriki, “Palaiologan Mistra and the West,” in Byzantium and Europe: First
International Byzantine Conference. Delphi, 20–24 July 1985 (Delphi, 1987), pp. 209–46, at
239.
12 Charalambos Bouras, “The Impact of Frankish Architecture on Thirteenth-Century
Byzantine Architecture,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the
Muslim World, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (Washington dc, 2001),
pp. 247–62.
figure 10.1 Church of Pantanassa in Mistra, exterior, east façade.
Photo: Agnieszka Szymanska