386 Kalopissi-Verti
St Marina may be compared to one group of paintings at Kalyvia Kouvara with
regard to the modelling of the faces, the facial outlines, the linear rendering of
the eyes and of the hair. The same linear features in an even more schematic
form are found in the murals of St John the Theologian. Here the depiction of
mounted military saints in the sanctuary and in the prothesis deviates from
the standard iconographic programme of Byzantine churches. However, this
arrangement is also found in two 13th-century churches on the island of Naxos
and may be interpreted as a reflection of the encounter with the crusaders. In
fact, the warrior saint on horseback in the prothesis has been compared with
crusader icons in St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai.41
The range of activities of this workshop seems to be impressively wide
throughout the Lordship of Athens and Thebes. For example, the figure of the
Pantokrator in the dome of the church of St John at Schematari in southern
Boeotia (Figure 11.7), which has been detached and is now exhibited in the
Christian and Byzantine Museum in Athens, has an arresting resemblance
with the image of the Pantokrator in the chapel of St Nicholas at Spelia Pentelis
(1232/33)42 (Figure 11.8). In addition, more and more monuments that come to
light in Attica, in Megaris and in southern Boeotia and are dated to the first half
or around the middle of the 13th century are connected iconographically and
stylistically to this workshop. For example, the images preserved in the sanc-
tuary of the church of Hagia Sotera (Holy Saviour) in Maroussi43 bear close
resemblances to the linear style of the workshop. The same combination of
linear and painterly features characterizes the recently uncovered fragments of
the wall paintings in the church of St Nicholas at Varybobi (Thrakomakedones)
Chatzidaki, “Mosaics and Wall-Paintings,” pp. 250–54; Nafsika Panselinou, Βυζαντινή Αθήνα
[Byzantine Athens] (Athens, 2004), pp. 60–61, pls. 24–27.
41 Kalopissi-Verti, “Επιπτώσεις της Δ ́ Σταυροφορίας,” pp. 74–75.
42 Andromachi Katselaki, “Τοιχογραφίες” [“Murals”], in Ο κόσμος του Βυζαντινού Μουσείου
[The World of the Byzantine Museum] (Athens, 2004), p. 108, fig. 85; Charis Koilakou,
“Μνημειακή ζωγραφική στη βυζαντινή και μεταβυζαντινή Βοιωτία” [“Monumental Painting
in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Boeotia”], in Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Βοιωτία
[Encyclopaedia of the Greek World, Boeotia] accessible at http://kassiani.fhw.gr/boeotia/
forms/fLemma.aspx?lemmaId=12978 (consulted in September 2014). Hieronymos
(Liapis), Χριστιανική Βοιωτία, 1:330–33.
43 Stelios Mouzakis, Βυζαντινές–Μεταβυζαντινές Εκκλησίες Βόρειας Αττικής (12ος–19ος αιώνας):
Αρχιτεκτονική–Εικονογραφική περιγραφή [Byzantine and post-Byzantine Churches of Northern
Attica (12th–19th Century): Architectural and Iconographical Description] (Athens, 2010),
pp. 33–38.