356 Georgopoulou
which per force refers to distant regional styles. It implies that for the most part
the Latin buildings in medieval Greece were cut off from current architectural
developments in the homeland either because they followed architectural
models that had already developed in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of
Latin (crusader) expansion or because of lack of resources.
The sculptural embellishment of these churches, usually non-figural deco-
rative sculpture found on portals, capitals, corbels, and window tracery shows
an affiliation with the Gothic as can be observed in the crochet capitals of the
ducal church of St Mark in Candia (Figure 10.9).80 A close look at the monu-
ments reveals the presence of skilled sculptors rather than architects well
versed in the Gothic style. We never see a richly decorated Gothic portal in
the fashion of highly articulated flamboyant Gothic style; in Crete tympana
typically displayed coats of arms and sometimes must have been adorned
with painted decoration as in the case of the church of St Mark in Candia
which no longer survives.81 The impressive Latin churches exerted an influ-
ence on the landscape and the locals as must have done the fortifications
of the Latins.82
At the same time Greek churches multiplied in the villages of the Peloponnese
and Crete in the second half of the 13th century and beyond. In the area of the
Duchy of Athens many churches were painted in the first part of the century.83
Regional surface surveys in Greece confirm a major population growth and the
rising productivity of the countryside with many more nucleated hamlet and
village sites in the 11th and 12th centuries.84 The greater number of Orthodox
80 Georgopoulou, Venice’s Medieterranean Colonies, pp. 120–31.
81 For the surviving coats of arms see Giuseppe Gerola, Monumenti veneti, 2:265–66. Sparsely
decorated or plain tympana seem to be the case in the region of the Veneto as well.
82 Dimitris Theodosopoulos, “Aspects of Transfer of Gothic Masonry Vaulting Technology to
Greece in the Case of Saint Sophia in Andravida,” in Proceedings of the 3rd International
Congress on Construction History (Cottbus, 2009), pp. 1403–10.
83 Maria Panayotidi, “Village Painting and the Question of Local ‘Workshops’,” in Les vil-
lages dans l’Empire byzantin (IVe–xve siècle), ed. Jacques Lefort, Cécile Morrisson and
Jean-Pierre Sodini, Realités byzantines 11 (Paris, 2005), pp. 193–212; Monika Hirschbichler,
“The Crusader Paintings in the Frankish Gate at Nauplia, Greece: A Historical Construct
in the Latin Principality of Morea,” Gesta 44 (2005), 13–30; and Sophia Kalopissi-Verti,
“The Impact of the Fourth Crusade on Monumental Painting of the Peloponnese and
Eastern Central Greece up to the End of the Thirteenth Century,” in Byzantine Art in the
Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade and its Consequences, International Congress, March 9–12,
2004 , ed. Panayotis L. Vokotopoulos (Athens, 2007), pp. 63–88.
84 John Bintliff, “The Frankish Countryside in Central Greece: The Evidence from
Archaeological Survey,” in The Archaeology of Medieval Greece, ed. Peter Lock and Guy
D.R. Sanders (Oxford, 1996), pp. 1–18; idem, The Complete Archaeology of Greece, p. 391.