Monumental Art in the Lordship of Athens and Thebes 391
the painterly means applied in the rendering of certain figures, such as St
Marina and St George, advocate for a later date, probably the third quarter
of the 13th century.52 In the vicinity of Megara, at Alepochori,53 the small
monastic church dedicated to the Saviour, a donation of a priest and his fam-
ily, including his mother, is a much less ambitious monument. The frescoes, of
lower quality and of a provincial character, show in their majority conservative
features in iconography and style, mingled with certain reflections of contem-
porary art. They have been dated, on stylistic grounds, in the decades 1260–80.
Despite the simplification and schematisation in style that connects the
frescoes of the church of the Panagia (the Virgin) at Merenta in Mesogaia54
with the above discussed murals of the second quarter of the 13th century in
Attica, the volumetric rendering of certain figures, such as the Holy Anargyroi,
favours a later date in the 13th century.55 Certain details, such as a shield with
a chevron motif held by the centurion in the scene of the Crucifixion, show
western influences. Moreover, Nikodemos at the feet of the dead Christ in the
scene of the Lamentation is not dressed in the typical tunica and himation
usually encountered in Byzantine painting, but rather in a garment that recalls
de décors peints en Grèce au xiie siècle,” in Πρακτικά του Πρώτου Διεθνούς Kυπρολογικού
Συνεδρίου, Λευκωσία 1969, [Proceedings of the First International Cyprological Congress,
Nicosia 1969], 3 vols. in 4 parts (Nicosia, 1972), 2:38–39; Karin M. Skawran, The Development
of Middle Byzantine Fresco Painting in Greece (Pretoria, 1982), pp. 175–76 and passim,
figs. 319–35.
52 Vojislav J. Djurić, “La peinture murale byzantine: xii et xiiie siècles,” Actes du xve Congrès
International d’Études Byzantines, Athènes–Septembre 1976 (Athens, 1979), p. 225; Doula
Mouriki, Οι τοιχογραφίες του Σωτήρα κοντά στο Αλεποχώρι της Μεγαρίδος [The Murals of the
Saviour near Alepochori of Megara] (Athens, 1978), pp. 55–56; Sophia Kalopissi-Verti,
“Tendenze stilistiche della pittura monumentale in Grecia durante il xiii secolo,” Corso di
Cultura sull’arte Ravennate e Bizantina 31 (1984), p. 247; Titos Papamastorakis, Ο διάκοσμος
του τρούλου των ναών της Παλαιολόγειας περιόδου στη Βαλκανική χερσόνησο και την Κύπρο [The
Decoration of the Dome of Churches of the Palaiologan Period in the Balkans and Cyprus]
(Athens, 2001), p. 16; Stoufi-Poulimenou, Βυζαντινές εκκλησίες, pp. 151–59. The nowadays
destroyed frescoes in the church of St. Demetrius “Kardata” close to Megara, which com-
bine painterly with linear features, have been dated, correctly I think, to the last quarter
of the 13th century, Stoufi-Poulimenou, Βυζαντινές εκκλησίες, pp. 203–22.
53 Mouriki, Οι τοιχογραφίες του Σωτήρα κοντά στο Αλεποχώρι.
54 Coumbaraki-Pansélinou, Saint-Pierre, pp. 123–70, pls. 58–85 (second quarter of the 13th
century). For a slighlty later dating, see Mouriki, Οι τοιχογραφίες του Σωτήρα κοντά στο
Αλεποχώρι, p. 58 (mid 13th century or a little later). Kalopissi-Verti, “Tendenze stilistiche,”
pp. 247–49. For colour plates, see Ghini-Tsofopoulou, “Τα ‘Μεσόγεια’,” figs. 11–12.
55 Coumbaraki-Pansélinou, Saint-Pierre, pl. 81.