A reassessment of middle Byzantine monumental painting on Mount Athos. Patronage, dating and style

Abstract

Our view of Middle Byzantine monumental painting on Mount Athos remains fragmentary, mainly due to the absence of textual sources on workshops and patronage. Thus, the attribution of pictorial ensembles to this period largely depends on their association with the artistic environments of Komnenian Constantinople and Thessalonike. Based on epigraphic, iconographic and stylistic evidence, the following article will offer an overall assessment of the extant fragments raising new questions as to their style, dating and patrons.

Keywords

• byzantine painting
• mount athos
• karyes-athos
• vatopaidiou monastery
• iviron monastery
• zygos monastery
• ravdouchos kellion