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Mural Painting in Karyes (Mt Athos) from the Fifteenth to the Early Ninteenth Century

Articles

• Βαφειάδης, Κωνσταντίνος Μ.
• ΒΑΦΕΙΑΔΗΣ, Κωνσταντίνος Μ.

In the region of Karyes, the administrative centre of the monastic community of Mt Athos, a large number of monumental iconographie programmes dating from between 1450 and 1820 are preserved in the kellia and in their small churches. The aim of this article is to present a brief summary of these decorative programmes. No evidence exists of monumental artistic activity in the churches of Karyes between approximately 1350 and 1450, but representations of two figures, historically very important and possibly dating from the third quarter of the fifteenth century, can be found in the Megali Panagia hellion. These frescoes reflect a traditionally academic and idealistic movement in fifteenth century Balkan art, and in a way constitute the "missing link'' between Palaeologan and "Cretan" art on Mt Athos (Figs. 1 and 2). Around the end of the fifteenth century and in the second and third decades of the sixteenth century painting workshops decorated the Kaproulis kellion, the St John the Baptist chapel of the Protaton church (Fig. 4), and the Flaska and Plakaris kellia. Stylistically this workshop is associated with the artistic manner of the workshops which circulated in the Balkans in the fifteenth century. However in 1536 a painter whose style was deeply influenced by the artistic heritage of both Palaeologan and contemporary Cretan painting decorated the Molyvokklisia kellion (Fig. 5). A moderate artist painted the prothesis of the Protaton a century and a half later (1686) (Fig. 6). Things would change radically after the first decade of the eighteenth century. Dionysios of Fourna, the author of the Hermeneia, decorated his kellion using models from the Protaton (Fig. 7), and five other pictorial ensembles followed the same general trends until the middle of the century. But from 1730 to 1800 other contemporary workshops interpreted learned religious art in an artless and ingenuous manner (Fig. 9). From the 1760s onwards a new Athonite workshop with innovative ambitions, indirectly influenced by late baroque Italian art, made its appearance. This is the Galatsianoi painting workshop (1778-1879), which is associated with many of the decorative programmes on Mt Athos (Fig. 12). Similar trends are found in a few other churches in the same area during the early ninteenth century. Finally, two very significant items are located in the St Anthony chapel in the skete of St Andrew (otherwise known as the Serai). These are two painted figures and one painted head which are representative examples of the artist's work (Figs. 14-15).

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4140
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.407