The Landscape of Medieval Greece 365
diachronic development or any kind of assimilation of the imported art into a
local idiom can be imagined in this polarised environment. It is important to
insert into the equation the local population by according them a more signifi-
cant role in shaping the architectural aesthetic of a region, understanding that
they had more than one option.113
The juxtaposition of linguistic occurrences on the islands of Crete and
Cyprus offers interesting insights; in Cyprus, where the royal monuments sug-
gest beyond doubt the presence of an imported workforce, the majority of
terms referring to architecture are French and Italian words even in Greek texts
whereas in Crete some of the words for building materials had Greek roots.114
We can thus surmise that, unlike the case of monumental painters who were
predominantly local, there was a considerable transfer of western architects,
sculptors, and masons from the West to the East as it has also been assumed for
the crusader states and the Despotate of Epirus for sculptors.115 Notarial docu-
ments from Crete mention the use of local artisans and masons and it is tempt-
ing to suggest the existence of workshops that were ethnically mixed in the
13th and 14th centuries. Numerous construction contracts in Candia confirm
what seems intuitively obvious: the same masons would work on the construc-
tion of private homes regardless of the ethnicity of their patrons.116
The careful consideration of masonry techniques (that use the Byzantine
practice of mixing in rubble and fragments of tiles) at the two Frankish build-
ings of Chlemoutsi and St Francis of Glarenza have shown the collaboration
between Franks and Greeks on the ground.117 In fact, a small group of churches
shows signs of a fusion of western features and Byzantine tradition beyond the
addition of one or two decorative details as is in the case in most rural churches.
113 Fulvio Zuliani, “Le strade italiane del Gotico: Appunti per una revisione storiografica,”
Hortus artium medievalium 4 (1998), 145–54.
114 This is especially true in the chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, cf. Catherine Asdracha,
“Cypriot Culture during the Lusignan Period: Acculturation and Ways of Resistance,”
Σύμμεικτα 9 (1994), 81–94, esp. 92; and for Crete; cf. Maria Georgopoulou, “Private
Residences in Venetian Candia (Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries),” Thesaurismata 30
(2000), 95–126, esp. 110.
115 Linda Safran, “Exploring Artistic Links Between Epirus and Apulia in the Thirteenth
Century: The Problem of Sculpture and Wall Painting,” in Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Συμποσίου
για το Δεσποτάτο της Ηπείρου (Άρτα, 27–31 Μαΐου 1990) [Proceedings of the International
Symposium on the Despotate of Epirus (Arta, 27–31 May 1990)], ed. E. Chrysos, (Arta, 1992),
pp. 455–74.
116 Georgopoulou, “Private Residences,” pp. 95–126.
117 Athanasoulis, “The Triangle of Power,” p. 144.