Monumental Art in the Lordship of Athens and Thebes 403
1209 confirming privileges of four abbeys (abbatias) and 17 monasteries (mon-
asteria) in Athens and its environs, which were under the jurisdiction of the
Latin archbishopric of Athens,73 also testifies to a considerable number of
active monasteries at the beginning of the 13th century.
The attitude of the painter Ioannes who mentions with pride his place
of origin, the great city of Athens (μεγαλοπόλεως Ἀθηνῶν), in the foundation
inscription of the church of the Holy Trinity in Kranidi/Argolid in 1244, is
indicative of the self-esteem of the painters and of the reception of Athens in
the consciences of the Greeks at that time. A proud sense of identity begins to
emerge. In addition, the scholarly language of the metrical inscription in the
church of St Peter at Kalyvia Kouvara reveals a high-standing cultural milieu at
least among the Greek high ecclesiastical hierarchy.74
At the same time, shortly before and around the mid-13th century, a work-
shop of sculptors probably originating from southern Italy who were assumedly
also active in the court of the Komnenoi-Doukai rulers of Epirus is attested in
Athens.75 The funerary sculptures showing a western style bear inscriptions,
both in Greek and Latin, which reveal that the workshop addressed a mixed,
Greek and Latin, clientele. This fact points to an acculturation, to a certain
extent, from the side of the Greek patrons who evidently belonged to a rich
middle class and had the means to commission sculpted burial monuments
alike to those of the Franks. Contrariwise, in the extant monumental paintings
of the first half of the 13th century there are no signs of western painters or
direct western influences. However, the Latin conquest had its consequences,
first of all in style which, based on the previous Komnenian tradition, after the
73 Othmar Hageneder et al., eds., Die Register Innocenz’ iii., 12 vols. (Graz, 1964–) [in prog-
ress], 11:403–08, no. 250; Johannes Koder, “Der Schutzbrief des Papstes Innozenz iii. für
die Kirche Athens”, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 26 (1977), 129–41. See also
Jean Longnon, “L’organisation de l’église d’Athènes par Innocent iii,” in Mémorial Louis
Petit. Mélanges d’histoire et d’archéologie byzantines (Bucharest, 1948), 336–46.
74 See above, p. 383.
75 Andreas Xyngopoulos, “Φραγκοβυζαντινά γλυπτά εν Αθήναις” [Franco-Byzantine Sculpture
in Athens”], Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς (1991), 69–102; Sklavou Mavroidi, Γλυπτά του Bυζαντινού
Mουσείου, pp. 189–95, nos. 263–71; Pallas, “Eυρώπη και Bυζάντιο,” pp. 27–28, fig. 1; 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. Evangelos Chrysos (Arta, 1992), pp. 457–
59; Kalopissi-Verti, “Relations between East and West,” pp. 24–28; Melvani, “H γλυπτική,”
pp. 37–38. See also Eric A. Ivison, “Latin Tomb Monuments in the Levant 1204–ca 1450,” in
The Archaeology of Medieval Greece, pp. 92–94.