380 Kalopissi-Verti
justifiable wish of the local population later to preserve their own monuments
but not those of the Latins after their withdrawal from the land.
Among the earliest extant paintings in Attica after the establishment of
Frankish rule are the few figures of Church Fathers and deacons that decorated
once the bema of the church of St George at Oropos (about 1230), now exhib-
ited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens.29 The painterly render-
ing of the volumes seems to reflect the mainstream artistic developments of
the time. The images of two deacons preserved in the church of St George at
Loukisia in Boeotia30 (Figure 11.3) have been compared to the paintings in St
George at Oropos and in St Peter at Kalyvia Kouvara and dated to the second
quarter of the 13th century. This stylistic trend is continued in the church of the
Holy Trinity at Kranidi in the Argolid, in the Peloponnese (1244),31 (Figure 11.4) a
region belonging then to the de la Roche family. The painter’s name—Ioannes
from the great city of Athens—is recorded in the foundation inscription, not
without a certain pride: διὰ χειρὸς δὲ καμοῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ καὶ ἀναστηλώσαντος
τὰς σεπτὰς εἰκόνας ταύτας μεγαλοπόλεως Ἀθηνῶν (by the hand of me, Ioannes,
who restored these holy images, from the great city of Athens).32 The same
painter is attested according to stylistic evidence in the few extant paintings
in the church of St John Kalybites at Psachna on the island of Euboea (1245).33
29 Manolis Chatzidakis, “Bυζαντινές τοιχογραφίες στον Ωρωπό” [“Byzantine Murals in
Oropos”], Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 1 (1959), 87–110; Nikolaos
Nikoloudis, “Η περιοχή του Ωρωπού κατά τη βυζαντινή περίοδο και κατά τη Λατινοκρατία”
[“The Area of Oropos in the Byzantine Period and the Period of Latin Rule”], in Γ ́ Διεθνές
Συνέδριο Bοιωτικών Μελετών, Θήβα, 4–8 Σεπτεμβρίου 1996 [Third International Conference of
Boeotian Studies, Thebes, 4–8 September 1996], ed. Alexandra Christopoulou, 2 vols. num-
bered 3A and 3B [=Επετηρίς Εταιρείας Βοιωτικών Μελετών (2000)], 3B:582–89.
30 Twenty-third Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, Ο Άγιος Γεώργιος στα Λουκίσια
[St George at Loukisia] (Athens, 2010); Yannis Vaxevanis, “Οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού του
Αγίου Γεωργίου στα Λουκίσια Βοιωτίας” [“The Murals of the Church of St George at Loukisia
in Boeotia”], in Τέταρτο Αρχαιολογικό Έργο Θεσσαλίας και Στερεάς Ελλάδας, 2009–2011, από
τους προϊστορικούς στους νεώτερους χρόνους, 15–18 Μαρτίου 2012, Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας, Βόλος
[Fourth Archaeological Meeting on Thessaly and Sterea Hellas, 2009–2011: From Prehistoric
to Modern Times, 15–18 March 2012, University of Thessaly, Volos] ( forthcoming). I wish to
thank the author for showing me his unpublished paper.
31 Sophia Kalopissi-Verti, Die Kirche der Hagia Triada bei Kranidi in der Argolis (1244).
Ikonographishe und stilistische Analyse der Malereien (Munich, 1975).
32 Kalopissi-Verti, Die Kirche der Hagia Triada, pp. 2–4; eadem, Dedicatory Inscriptions and
Donor Portraits in Thirteenth-Century Churches of Greece (Vienna, 1992), pp. 64–65.
33 Kalopissi-Verti, Die Kirche der Hagia Triada, pp. 310–15; Melita Emmanuel, “Die Fresken
der Kirche des Hosios Ioannes Kalybites auf Euboia,” Byzantinoslavica 52 (1991), 136–44.