416 Kalopissi-Verti
ktetor is aware of the political and ecclesiastical developments in the empire
and takes side with the pro-Union policy of the emperor and the patriarch.
On the other hand, the few monuments that show an exceptional stylistic
quality, such as the Omorphe Ekklesia at Galatsi and St Nicholas at Kalamos
(second phase), point, as already noted, to artists who probably came from
Thessalonica and its environs rather than from Constantinople.125
Many questions remain open, such as the use and function of these
churches—parochial, monastic, funerary, private. The role of burials within
and around the churches needs to be further investigated through excavations.
Furthermore, the acquisition of permission and consent from the landlord to
found and own an Orthodox church in the territory of his fief, the management
of the finances of a church remain open issues as there are no written docu-
ments, in contrast to Venetian Crete.126 Some of these churches were sponsored
by local archontes who collaborated with the Latins and were incorporated in
the feudal system. Thus, we may assume that the churches they donated were
located on their own properties. However, there is no relevant information for
the plethora of Orthodox churches donated by priests, monks and lay people.
In conclusion, the monumental and artistic evidence has shown few
monuments of Latin patronage mainly concentrated in the fortified towns
and mostly of secular use and a great number of Orthodox churches, both
existing in towns and scattered in the countryside, a phenomenon which
obviously reflects the density and distribution of the population. This great
number of extant Orthodox churches, particularly from the 13th century,
reveals a vigorous local population and a surplus of wealth which allowed
members of the Orthodox community to erect and decorate churches. It
also points to a religious tolerance and good terms of co-existence between
Latins and Greeks. The loss of Constantinople and the dismemberment of the
empire led to an adherence to Komnenian art and to the emergence of local
traditions. Nonetheless, the local artistic evolution in the lordship was not an
isolated phenomenon but was incorporated in a common pictorial language,
a koine, shared widely in the regions around the Eastern Mediterranean. The
epigraphically confirmed expansion of church patronage to middle and lower
social classes explains the often mediocre quality of mural paintings and the
diversity of stylistic trends.
Although the overwhelming majority of mural paintings in 13th- and 14th-
century Orthodox churches in the Lordship of Athens and Thebes remained
loyal to tradition, the encounter between the two worlds, East and West,
125 See above, pp. 400–01, 407.
126 Gratziou, Η Κρήτη στην ύστερη μεσαιωνική εποχή, pp. 114–18.