Monumental Art in the Lordship of Athens and Thebes 379
and the medieval West. She pointed out, furthermore, that the ancient hero
was considered in western Europe as a personification of chivalric ideals and
that the whole composition in the gatehouse served as a reminder of the cru-
sader exemplars to the defenders of the fortress.28
In a period when there is very little literary or extant artistic evidence for
the production of monumental painting by the Latins in Greek territories both
painted layers in the gateway of the Frankish fortress of Nauplia convey clear
political and ideological messages addressed to both Latins and Greeks.
Monumental Art of Greek Patronage
Rule of the de la Roche (1212–1311): The Monuments
Much more numerous are the extant monuments of the Orthodox local popu-
lation particularly from the 13th century. Τhis may be explained by the much
larger numbers of the Greeks in relation to the Franks and, in addition, by the
28 Hischbichler, “The Crusader Paintings,” pp. 22–24.
figure 11.2 Akronauplia, Argolid, gatehouse. Angel holding Christ’s mandorla.
Photo: author, by permission of the 25th Ephorate of Byzantine
Antiquities.