Mileševa, Sinai and “Crusader art”. A contribution to the study of thirteenth-century Byzantine painting

Abstract

The paper proposes a stylistic link between the earliest wall paintings in the Church of the Ascension at the Mileševa Monastery, previously usually attributed to Thessalonian painters, and several icons from St. Catherine’s monastery on Mount Athos. Based on their visual similarity, it questions the earlier attributions of those Sinai icons, rejecting the view that they were painted by Western Crusader artists. Furthermore, their ascription to Byzantine artists is also supported by certain iconographic parallels with corresponding details on the frescoes of Mileševa.

Keywords

• mileševa
• st. catherine’s monastery on mount sinai
• crusader art
• serbian medieval art
• byzantine art
• thirteenth century