Monumental Art in the Lordship of Athens and Thebes 417
resulted—in a limited number of cases—in a certain degree of reciprocal
interrelationship and interchange. The scarce evidence has shown a tendency
towards acculturation and rapprochement from the side of the Latins. The
Greek Orthodox population in the duchy, notwithstanding its adherence to
Komnenian tradition, its devotion to the Orthodox rite and its orientation
towards Constantinople, accepted the challenges of the West and opened a
dialogue. The encounter with the Latin dogma and culture strengthened the
sense of identity and self-consciousness of the local inhabitants. Greek patrons,
clergy and painters responded to the Latins by assimilating certain secondary
motifs and by creating and using iconographic subjects which allude to the
doctrinal differences and reveal mostly opposition to the Latin doctrine or,
more rarely and mostly in theologically very erudite circles, a rapprochement.