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Home , Kastoria, Prespes

Art, Patronage, and Society

EUGENIA DRAKOPOULOU

astoria’s historical development was dynamic Balkan city with noteworthy determined by its intelligently potential for growth in its economy, Kchosen location, its links to major education, social organization, and power roads, and its inhabitants’ diligence. Before structures. The image of a city that and after any approach to and interpretation flourished economically and intellectually in of this development, one of the city’s the eighteenth century primarily impresses impressive achievements is unquestionable: modern visitors to this densely settled center this small urban center of the Byzantine of 20,000 inhabitants as they encounter Empire, which may or may not have totaled early modern Kastoria’s imposing mansions three to four thousand residents in the of wealthy merchants and furriers’ fourteenth century, had amassed dozens of workshops. The processing of fur, which is churches decorated with artistically attested in the region from the fifteenth noteworthy and portable icons. century and was largely responsible for the Furthermore, the city’s pious and worthy city’s flourishing economy in the eighteenth inhabitants took care that a wealth of century, continues to this day.4 inscriptions accompanied these works of The Byzantine city then emerges in the art, in which they included family names, same place with its small-scale plan, as offices, property, administrators, and churches, sections of walls, and towers rulers. Today this admirable record unexpectedly appear beside old mansions of local artistic patronage1 dating back to and modern buildings. The area is the tenth century serves as a basic key to constricted, given that the urban fabric the reconstruction of the history of a small extended a mere 984 yards (900 m) east to Byzantine provincial city. west and 1,093 yards (1,000 m) north to Kastoria2 was built on the lake of the south. Within this space there are roughly same name in western in the seventy churches5 dating from the ninth to Haliakmon River valley (figs. 34, 95); it the nineteenth centuries, almost fully was in direct communication with the integrated into the urban fabric (fig. 96). major , the main artery linking Decorated with wall paintings, portable the West to Constantinople (fig. 19). The icons, and the Greek donors’ dedicatory Byzantine city’s characteristic features3 had inscriptions, they bear witness to the already been formed by the tenth century: spiritual and social life of Kastoria’s natural and built fortifications, a fertile residents.6 Around 400 portable icons hinterland—although one vulnerable to (some of them on display in this exhibition) hostile incursions, and exploitation of the dating from the twelfth to the nineteenth wealth of Lake Kastoria combined with a centuries, fragments of wall paintings, Early high living standard and the cultivation of Christian mosaics, and architectural Byzantine civilization in terms of its members from both Byzantine and customs, art, and the . Ottoman times are housed in the city’s With this solid foundation of urban Byzantine Museum, built in 1989 atop the structure and organization, Byzantine and hill of the Byzantine acropolis.7 later Turkish (from the late 14th century) Kastoria evolved up to the present into a Fig. 95 | Panoramic view of the city of Kastoria.

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34

36 22 24 37 25 31 21 23

1 1. Church of Hagioi Anargyroi 33 20 2. Church of Taxiarches Metropoleos 16 3. Church of Hagios Stephanos 12 LAKE 19 4. Koumbelidike 17 5. Church of Hagios Nikolaos tou Kasnitze 32 3 6. Church of Hagios Athanasios 11 15 26 7. Church of Hagios Nikolaos Mouzabike 27 10 13 8. Church of the Panagia Rassiotissa 28 9. Church of the Panagia Mouzabike 18 9 7 10. Church of Hagios Georgios Mouzabike 11. Church of Hagioi Apostoloi 12. Church of Hagios Nikolaos 38 14 4 8 13. Church of Hagios Demetrios 14. Church of Hagios Taxiarches Gymnasiou 15. Church of Hagios Nikolaos Magaleiou 16. Church of Panagia 17. Church of Hagios Nikolaos 5 18. Church of Hagios Nikolaos 19. Church of Hagios Andreas 20. Church of Hagios Nikolaos Kyritze 21. Church of Hagios Georgrios tou Vounou 29 30 22. Church of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple 2 23. Church of Hagios Nikolaos Tzotze 24. Church of Taxiarchai 35 25. Church of Phaneromene 26. Church of Hagios Georgios tes Politeias 6 27. Church of Panagia tou Oikonomou 28. Church of Hagios Alypios 29. Church of Hagios Nikolaos tou Dragota 30. Church of Hagios Nikolaos tou Karibe LAKE 31. Church of Prodromos Apozari 32. Goula Djami of the Citadel 33. Kursun Djami 34. Djami 35. Natzes Mansion 36. Tsiatsapas Mansion Fig. 96 | Topographical map of Kastoria with locations 37. Sapountzes Mansion of Byzantine monuments (after Pelekanides and 38. City walls Chatzidakes 1985).

From this vantage point one enjoys a to supplement the city’s strong wall in the Justinian age,11 should make us cautious sweeping view of Kastoria and its lake. The defense of the city. The historian Prokopios about crediting the city’s fortification to city developed in the Byzantine period on a mentioned the walls of Kastoria in his Justinian’s imperial program.12 In any case, natural elevation some 246 feet (75 m) work De Aedificiis, in which he sings the it appears that medieval Kastoria developed above the lake. The ridge on which the city praises of the emperor Justinian’s (527–65) at the same site as the Roman city of was built started from a narrow strip of monumental building program in , Celetron,13 and on the basis of the land, the isthmus, which was Kastoria’s Asia, and Africa as well as his rebuilding of archaeological finds the first coherent only connection with the mainland. It was more than one hundred cities.9 Prokopios picture of the well-developed Byzantine described with exceptional accuracy by the attributed the choice of Kastoria’s location urban center dates to the tenth century. twelfth-century Byzantine historian and and its fortifications to Justinian’s imperial During this period its walls defined the writer Anna Komnene, daughter of policy. The fact that Prokopios includes city’s outer limit, protecting it from enemies Emperor (1083–1118): information about the building of walls in and separating it from the villages in the “there is a lake, the Lake of Kastoria, into Early Christian cities that does not agree fertile valley of the Haliakmon, from which which there obtrudes a strip of land from with modern archaeological finds,10 added to Kastoria’s residents obtained their produce. the mainland; at its tip it expands, ending the fact that more recent excavation in the The defensive requirements were of utmost in rocky mountains.” 8 By virtue of this city does not confirm with any degree of importance for the survival of this unique geographic location, the lake served certainty the dating of Kastoria’s walls to provincial urban center, which saw fighting

| 116 | between Byzantines and (10th Kastoria’s numerous churches Hagios Stephanos,20 on the city’s eastern century), (11th century), Serbs continue in operation today, with the side, this is most apparent. In its main (14th century), (14th century), exception of a few monuments which by floor, its narthex, and its galleries the and Ottomans (14th century).14 In the late virtue of their interesting architecture and greater part of its original painted fourteenth century, following the fall of unique wall paintings function primarily decoration is preserved, dominated by the other Byzantine cities in the Balkans, as museums. Most churches, both scene of the Second Coming, an Kastoria was taken by the Ottomans, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine, were built exceptionally important work of Middle under whose rule it remained until 1912, and decorated with private donations, as is Byzantine painting (10th century). The when it was incorporated into the confirmed by inscriptions and by the fact original paint layer was sporadically Kingdom of during the first period that even now they continue to be known covered by wall paintings from various of the Royal Republic. Throughout its by the names of their founders. later periods, most of which are in the history, the most important element of the Some ten monuments survive from nature of occasional votive icons. A second city’s defenses and its demarcation from the Byzantine Kastoria’s earliest years, layer includes primarily scenes from the hinterland was the lakeside wall that closed beginning in the mid-ninth century Gospels dating to the late twelfth–early off its northwest side, the only one not following the age of Iconoclasm (the thirteenth centuries.21 Many votive images protected by the lake. From the Byzantine religious controversy, with political falling outside the iconographic program period we have testimony to a small-scale implications, over the worship of sacred cover various portions of the walls and the wall on the acropolis, site of the images) and down to the late tenth main-floor piers; these date to the administrative buildings, the cathedral century.17 Members of the local elite took thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth dedicated to the Virgin Mary as the city’s the initiative in building and decorating patron,15 the bishop’s palace, and these churches, in which they are presumably the residences of rulers and frequently depicted. Constantine administrators. In the seventeenth century (Konstantinos) is one of the first residents the chronicler and traveler Evliya Çelebi of Byzantine Kastoria to come to life, described a lovely fortress built with ashlar thanks to his portrait in the church of the masonry on the western side of a large lake Hagioi Anargyroi (fig. 97). His picture is with limpid waters, atop a steep cliff, similar quite large. He is dressed in simple to an island. Its walls were quite high, and garments and standing beside his patron it had strong towers facing the lake.16 Saint Constantine; a touching inscription Only a very few portions of Kastoria’s mentions only the date of his death— fortifications are preserved, and since the November 21—presumably some time city has been inhabited in successive layers around the year 1000.18 from the Byzantine age until the present, The church of the Hagioi Anargyroi excavation is almost prohibitively difficult. (fig. 98),19 where in all probability But it is interesting that excavations of Constantine was also buried, dates to the limited scope, in conjunction with tenth-eleventh century. Together with the historical testimony, have established that churches of Hagios Stephanos (c. 900) the city’s two main modern streets trace and Taxiarches Metropoleos (Taxiarches in the paths of the Byzantine streets that the parish of the cathedral; c. 900), it is started from the main gate of the lakeside representative of the small, simply- wall and crossed the city. constructed churches of the three-aisle Within the walls residential basilica type that could be erected on neighborhoods were organized around constricted building sites at no great cost their churches, the focus of social life in to their donors. They more or less reflect Byzantine urban centers. Especially in prototypes from Thessalonike or small provincial cities, the large open Constantinople, and were widespread public gathering places characteristic of throughout Macedonia. Greek and Roman cities, considered In many Byzantine and later churches undesirable by Byzantine subjects, gave we find continual alterations— renovations way to church precincts where people and additional wall paintings and gathered not only to attend services but dedications beyond the central unified Fig. 97 | The donor Constantine and the dedicatory also to converse, enjoy themselves, and iconographic cycles. In Kastoria this is inscription. Wall painting, circa 1000. Kastoria, church of conduct business. especially pronounced. In the church of Hagioi Anargyroi, narthex.

| 117 | centuries. In a small “hermitage” (asketerion) emperor, that included previous Bulgarian The twelfth century—the age of the on the church’s upper floor dedicated to conquests around Ohrid in the modern- Komnenoi —generally signified a rise of Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin, day Former Yugoslav Republic of local aristocracies within the Byzantine there are “remembrances” and graffiti Macedonia (FYROM).23 Kastoria was Empire.24 Administrative reforms by the dating up to the modern era, documenting designated as the first among other Komnenoi brought significant changes to continuous contact between the bishoprics, an indication of its importance the structure of the Middle and Late population and its monuments. within the greater region. Its subjugation Byzantine city, prompting the dynamic Constantine and his wife Anna (13th to the archbishopric of Ohrid generally economic ascent of local rulers. These century), the nun Marina, the priest determined its history until the late rulers, the agents of local patronage, drew Theodoros Lemniotes, and Georgios (14th eighteenth century, during the period of their power from their military or century) (fig. 99) are among the Byzantine and mainly of Turkish rule, administrative offices as well as their landed Kastorians who wished not only to make when ecclesiastical administrations had the wealth. Their involvement was decisive for an offering to God, but to preserve their greatest influence on the lives of Christian the social makeup as well as the artistic names and portraits for eternity.22 subjects of the . achievements of the age. In Kastoria the During its first years Kastoria was After the establishment of the twelfth century was a prosperous time, for occupied for a time by the Bulgarians, and archbishopric of Ohrid in 1018, Kastoria the local upper class managed to take its recapture in 1018 by the Byzantine was under Byzantine governance with only advantage of generally more favorable emperor Basil II the “Bulgar-Slayer” brief interruptions. Following its temporary conditions for the growth of cities under (Boulgaroktonos; 976—1025) signified a conquest by the Normans, its recapture in the Komnenoi.25 Two important patrons decisive turn in the city’s history. The 1083 by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I representing the local aristocracy, the emperor’s plan was to found a Byzantine- Komnenos led to a long period of peace magistrate Nikephoros Kasnitzes and his influenced archbishopric, subject to the resulting in notable cultural development. wife Anna (fig. 100) and the family of

Fig. 98 | Kastoria, Hagioi Anargyroi. The east and south sides of the church.

| 118 | Fig. 99 | Donor and dedicatory inscription. Wall painting. Kastoria, church of Hagios Stephanos, north wall.

Theodoros Lemniotes and his wife Anna Anargyroi (see fig. 101). The superb wall the portraits capture the donors’ features for Radene (fig. 101) would adorn two of paintings and donors’ portraits in the eternity, the inscriptions preserve names, Kastoria’s churches, Hagios Nikolaos and churches of Kastoria are accompanied by familial relations, and offices, while the Hagioi Anargyroi, with wall paintings many inscriptions, often metrical literary recording the donors’ wishes for good representative of the high art of the twelfth texts which preserve a different kind of health, long life, and the forgiveness of sins. century.26 memory than the paintings themselves.28 In combination they document the donors’ The art in these two churches is closely While the wall paintings speak to us faith and metaphysical concerns, but at the related to the painting in the church of thanks to their artistic quality, the same time they attest to their prosperity Hagios Panteleemon in Nerezi (in expressiveness of the holy personages, and and desire for social and/or political modern-day FYROM),27 which was the directness of the religious scenes, and affirmation —a motivation behind the founded in 1164 by Emperor Alexios Komnenos’s grandson of the same name. At Nerezi the tall, aristocratic figures, their harmonious movements and expressive gestures, and the arrangement of religious scenes with their undulating curves introduced the most complete expression of divine Passion and human suffering to date in European religious painting (fig. 102). The presence, in a provincial city like Kastoria, of monuments of comparable art representing trends derived from major centers like Constantinople (fig. 103) documents the strong ties between the region of Macedonia and the capital’s high level of culture. The families of affluent Kastorian donors wished to pass into eternity wearing their luxurious clothing and jewelry, even if later they embraced the monastic life, as appears from the monastic head covering added to the abundant blond Fig. 100 | Saint Nikolaos, the holy Tile and the donors of the church. Wall painting, 12th century. Kastoria, church of hair of Anna Radene in the Hagioi Hagios Nikolaos tou Kasnitze, narthex.

| 119 | commissioning of works of art from antiquity down to the present day. While these paintings and inscriptions in themselves serve as an indication of the city’s spiritual and intellectual life in the twelfth century, we also happen to know that Kastoria’s bishops during this same period were particularly cultivated prelates. They had been educated in Constantinople and maintained friendships and corresponded with prominent church officials of their era.29 It is important to bear in mind the importance of bishops as key figures in the administrative, economic, and social life of Byzantine cities.30 They were more stable figures than politicians and military commanders, managed Church property, served as judges and reconcilers of differences within their flocks, and represented a high level of education, especially if they came from Constantinopolitan circles. Kastoria’s elevated cultural environment was fostered by the city’s economic prosperity and that of the surrounding region. It is confirmed by the testimony of the twelfth-century Arab geographer Al-Idrīsī, who wrote that in that age Kastoria was wealthy, pleasant, Fig. 101 | Virgin and Child among the donors of the church. Wall painting, late 12th century. Kastoria, church of and populous, with a lake in which Hagioi Anargyroi, north aisle. abundant catches of fish were to be had, and with a large number of surrounding villages.31 In addition to the Christian population, a flourishing Jewish community established itself in the city in the eleventh century. Its leader was the Kastorian Tobiah ben Eliezer, a well- known writer and poet. 32 The mention of Kastoria in the chrysobull for the Venetians issued in 1198 by emperor Alexios III Angelos (1195– 1203) confirms that there was noteworthy commercial activity in the city, reinforced by the presence of Venetian merchants who dominated Mediterranean trade. 33 A decisive factor in the development of Kastoria’s commerce, economy, and culture was its ready access to major roads. From the eleventh century we know of its link to the Via Egnatia, the major west-east artery starting from Dyrrachion that passed through Ohrid, Pelagonia (near Fig. 102 | Lamentation. Wall painting, 1164. Nerezi, church of Hagios Panteleemon. Kastoria), Edessa, and Thessalonike and

| 120 | ended in Constantinople.34 The other road favored by Western merchants—above all the Venetians—started on the Dalmatian coast, from Dyrrachion and Avlona (modern Vlorë, Albania), passed through and Kastoria, and continued to Trikala and before ending at the Pagasitic Gulf.35 These arteries, as has been true up until modern times, were not merely roads facilitating trade and military movements—for example, the Crusaders of the First Crusade passed over the Via Egnatia after sailing across the Adriatic Sea—but also routes for pilgrims, scholars, artists, and new ideas. Thus relations between the Kastorians and Venetians were not confined to trade, but extended to cultural ties, as is seen from influences of the painting of the Serenissima over the course of many centuries on both Kastoria’s frescos and portable icons.36 In 1204 the Venetians, who envisioned themselves as successors to Byzantium, finally turned the Crusaders en route to the Holy Land against Constantinople, temporarily depriving the Byzantine state of its capital. Half a century later, in 1261, Constantinople was retaken by Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259–82), up to that Fig. 103 | Archangel Michael. Wall painting, late 12th century. Kastoria, church of Hagioi Anargyroi, south aisle. time emperor of Nicaea, one of the successor states in Asia Minor (modern- day ) founded after the conquest of Komnenos, for it was at this site that the religious and political, namely the schism the capital. In 1259 Michael won a emperor’s forces, which retook the city between the Western and Eastern decisive victory in Macedonia at Pelagonia, from the Normans in 1083, had Churches that had been finalized in 1054. near Kastoria, which ensured him control disembarked. It was here, at a point kept The Byzantine emperor’s diplomatic over the greater region.37 The new alive in the collective memory and where initiatives toward the West led to the emperor, founder of the last dynasty of municipal events continue to be held council held in the French city of Lyons Byzantine emperors, had no hereditary today, that the new emperor of in 1274, which officially endorsed the rights to the throne, and in an effort to Constantinople, Michael Palaiologos, victor union of the two Churches, a decision that overcome this problem and stabilize his in the battle of Pelagonia, chose to be was never implemented. Both before and rule he attempted a propaganda policy that depicted beside Alexios Komnenos on the after the council, the views of leaders in would connect him with the imperial monastery’s exterior. In the pictorial the Orthodox Church were divided. The dynasty of the Komnenoi. In Kastoria composition, which includes the Virgin archbishopric of Ohrid, whose most there is a rare example of similar political Hodegetria, military saints, and the motif prestigious see was that of Kastoria, as propaganda at the Monastery of the of the Tree of Jesse, a symbolic mentioned above, was located in a Virgin Mavriotissa, built around 1000 on representation of the genealogy of Christ, sensitive geographical area near the the shore of Lake Kastoria in an area that the figures of the emperors (unfortunately Adriatic. It is known that many even today preserves its unique natural headless today) predominate in their royal inhabitants of Adriatic centers such as beauty. The church was painted with attire and holding the symbols of their Dyrrachion represented both the Orthodox exceptional frescos in the thirteenth power (fig. 104).39 and Catholic dogmas. It is characteristic century.38 The monastery’s founding was Michael Palaiologos attempted to that in the thirteenth century the bishop of associated with the age of Alexios resolve another major issue that was both Dyrrachion, Constantine Kabasilas, who

| 121 | later became archbishop of Ohrid, sought Orthodox and Catholic dogmas41 and from the breast of the Father (fig. 106). the counsel of his teacher, one of the politically between East and West, we find This is a clear reference to the Catholic leading prelates and spiritual figures of the in a church in Kastoria a unique doctrine of the emanation of the Holy time, Demetrios Chomatenos (1220– representation of the Holy Trinity Spirit from the Son as well (filioque). 34/36), about how strict he should be with displaying iconography that deviates from Thus, as regards the iconography of Catholic residents of Dyrrachion who that established in the Orthodox Church. churches, despite the prevailing impression frequently attended services and confession The painting is in the city’s only domed that it was conservative and unchanging, in Orthodox churches.40 It is known that church, which for this reason was also the truth is—as is clear from the above two the main opposition between the Churches called “Koumbelidike” 42 from the Turkish examples—that it could be exceptionally to this day had to do with the doctrinal word for “dome” (kubbe), and was dedicated timely and transmit political and doctrinal issue of the emanation of the Holy Spirit to the Virgin. This elegant church (fig. messages to believers. It should be noted from the Father and the Son (filioque). 105) was built in 900 within the city’s that the Christians of that era, thanks to During this age, when ecclesiastical and Byzantine acropolis. Among the frescos their intimate familiarity with religious political relations with the West were of executed between 1270 and 1280, a rare representations, could immediately discern intense interest to the , representation of the Holy Trinity pictures differences and understand new dogmatic and the climate in the nearby archbishopric the Holy Spirit emanating as a white dove or political proposals. And we should also of Ohrid was in flux between the from a disk held by the Son, emerging remember that generally speaking the formulation of iconographic programs in many important monuments and the appearance of new images, like the texts of the inscriptions, was a matter of choice on the part of the patron, worked out in collaboration with the painter. It is especially interesting that in Kastoria the occasional Christian rulers of the city, whether Bulgarians, Serbs, or Albanians, fully adopting Byzantine habits and the Greek language, chose churches— the places where the city’s residents gathered—to transmit political messages to their subjects. They continued the Byzantine sponsorship policy, followed the same artistic styles, and employed the same painting workshops. This was true during the thirteenth century and down to the final decades of the fourteenth, when the city’s history was marked by continuous changes in rulers. In the church of the Taxiarches Metropoleos43 it is possible to trace the continuity in customs and artistic practices under the city’s temporary Bulgarian and Serbian rulers. The church, dedicated to the archangel Michael, was built around 900 at the city’s southeast border, and was decorated with its first layer of frescos during that same era. Three centuries later, an impressive painting on the exterior wall of the narthex shows the Bulgarian king Michael Asen (1246– 56/57) and his mother and co-ruler, the Byzantine Irene Komnene, in full figure

Fig. 104 | Emperors, saints, and the Tree of Jesse. Wall painting, late 13th century. Kastoria, church of the Virgin and dressed in royal attire and jewelry, Mavriotissa, exterior of the south wall. supplicating the archangels Michael and

| 122 | Fig. 105 | Kastoria, Koumbelidike. The east and south sides of the church.

Gabriel under the protection of the Virgin The decoration of this same church father had distributed his lands in the (fig. 107). A fairly corrupt inscription with wall paintings closely related in style greater region of Epiros and Macedonia, mentions the “Great King Asanes [Asen]” to painting in Ohrid, the region’s built the church of Hagios Athanasios in and his mother, and attests that in the mid- metropolitan center, was done in 1359/60 Kastoria and adorned it with wall thirteenth century, when the city was under with a donation by an ecclesiastic, a monk paintings.47 These introduce a new style and their rule, they wished to signal their royal named Daniel. The dedicatory inscription new repertoire of subjects that we presence to the citizens of Kastoria, praying mentions the rule in the region by the encounter during the same period in the to the saints for their victory.44 They brother of the great Serbian leader Stefan regions of and Koritsa (Korçë), near employed an established Byzantine imperial Dusˇan (1308–55), Symeon Urosˇ Kastoria; their models, however, go back to method, so resistant to the passage of time, Palaiologos, son of Stephen Urosˇ and the monuments in the artistic center of of transmitting even seven centuries later Byzantine Maria Palaiologina.45 This was a Thessalonike. The saints, who pray to not only historical information and artistic time of political instability and successive Christ and the Virgin, are dressed in intensity but also ideological messages. To changes following the collapse of Byzantine impressive regal attire and tall hats, like this day the painting eloquently rule in , Thessaly, and great archons (fig. 108). This new communicates how pious royal donors Epiros. In the city of Kastoria the rule of iconography was widely disseminated in the understood their position between divine the Serbs was followed by that of the region during the centuries that followed, omnipotence—the towering archangels—and Serbians’ Albanian ally, Andreas Mouzakes and was connected with the theological the people they ruled for a time, the masses (Muzaka), ruler of Berat.46 According to teachings of Gregory Palamas, archbishop of that encountered them daily on their way inscriptional testimony, Mouzakes’ sons, Thessalonike (1347) and Orthodox saint. to church. Theodore and Stoias, between whom their Palamas, a fervent supporter of Hesychasm,

| 123 | Fig. 106 | Holy Trinity. Wall painting, 1270–80. Kastoria, Fig. 107 | The Bulgarian king Michael Asen and his mother, the Byzantine Irene Komnene, Koumbelidike, esonarthex. supplicating the archangel Michael. Wall painting, mid 13th century. Kastoria, church of Taxiarches Metropoleos, exterior wall of the narthex.

a spiritual movement that fell within a During the period between the conquest. Furthermore, from the late broad context of political, religious, and construction of these two churches, the fifteenth century, when the Ottoman social disputes in the fourteenth and city fell under Ottoman rule. The example presence in the region was stabilized, the fifteenth centuries, was already venerated as lends force to the more general finding opening of roads favored artistic creation a saint in Kastoria by the mid-fourteenth that the change in overlords does not seem in the city of Kastoria and revived its ties century.48 It is obvious that the donors of to have influenced the religious life of with more northerly Balkan regions. Thus, the church of Hagios Athanasios, the many Byzantine cities, since the building in late fifteenth century a new artistic Albanian archons and the bishop Gabriel and painting of Christian churches movement, probably created by local mentioned in the church’s inscription, were continued unabated. The new conditions workshops, came to predominate. connected with erudite circles in of political stability in the region appear to Faithfully following Byzantine tradition Thessalonike, the second-greatest city in the have provided new impetus to the city’s from an iconographic and technical empire after Constantinople and the one in economic and social life, for only a century standpoint, it was distinguished by its which Palamas was primarily active. In later Kastoria was among the major cities urban character, with its wealth of learned Kastoria, for example in the Three Saints in the Balkans, while in the sixteenth Greek inscriptions, its studied organization church built in 1401 by the high-ranking century it was one of eleven cities in the and decoration, the luxuriousness of its nobleman Theophilos Pankrates, it is same geographic area with a ninety to one depicted clothing, and its obvious apparent from the language of the donor’s hundred percent Christian population.50 familiarity with western European means inscription, the church’s other inscriptions, Not only in Kastoria but throughout of artistic expression. This important and the iconographic program that the Macedonia, in its painting workshop executed the frescos in founder was well aware of contemporary ecumenical Orthodoxy appeared at least five of the city’s monuments ecclesiastical developments such as the indifferent to historical circumstances and between the late fifteenth century and the veneration of Gregory Palamas.49 was uninfluenced by the Ottoman first decades of the sixteenth, and moved

| 124 | with ease into neighboring regions—on the lords or rulers spread to different social history of the city. Above all they show borders of the archbishopric of Ohrid—as classes. From the literary inscriptions that from the Byzantine age on Kastoria far as .51 It is interesting that in all accompanying the aristocratic paintings provided an erudite, Christian, and Greek- its works in Kastoria, despite the fact that sponsored by the wealthy Theodore speaking environment with access to the painters’ names are not mentioned, Lemniotes family in the twelfth century to cultural tools with which to express one’s their patrons are always identified—lay- the simple legend “through subscription, worldview in forms resistant to time. persons, monks, and priests.52 labor, and expense” on a more provincial

As we have seen, from as early as the work funded by the nun Eupraxia in the 1 For artistic patronage in Byzantium, see Cormack tenth century and continuing down to the late fifteenth century, we discern an 1989; Dimitropoulou 2010. fifteenth, Kastorian society included a great impressive unity in artistic forms and the 2 See Brubaker 1986; Albani 1996, 838–39. 3 53 For the Byzantine city, see Concina 2003; Bouras 2002. number of individuals in a position to repetition of Byzantine practices. Thanks 4 For the fur industry in Kastoria, see Deslondes 1997. exhibit their generosity and enhance their to the city’s large number of preserved 5 Orlandos 1938; ªoutsopoulos 1992; Albani 1996. stature by commissioning works of art. churches, founders’ portraits, and 6 Albani 1996, 838–39; Drakopoulou 1997. 7 http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/1/gh151.jsp?obj_id=3401. The city managed not only to attract inscriptions, it is possible to follow an For the icons in the Museum, see Tsigaridas 2002. artists but even to maintain its own admirable continuity in customs and 8 Anna Komnene 2001, I, 169. 9 artistic workshops, both in times of war, lifestyles even down to the end of the Prokopios 1964, IV, 112. 10 See Cameron 1985, 84–112. 54 famine, or pillaging of the hinterland, eighteenth century. The inhabitants of 11 For the dating of Kastoria’s walls, see √rlandos 1938, when it was compelled to withdraw this small urban center continued to read 6; ªoutsopoulos 1974, 429. 12 For cities of the Justinian age, see Foss 2002; Saradi behind its walls, and in more peaceful the same prayers, recognize the faces of the 2006; and Saradi 2008. periods when it flourished and was in same saints, seek elegant attire, speak and 13 Hammond 1972b, 110–14. communication with the major cities of write the Greek language of the Byzantine 14 Albani 1996, 838. 15 See Δsolakis 2006, 447. the Balkans, the Adriatic, and . Empire, build churches, and commission 16 Dimitriadis 1973, 163–82. In the twelfth century Kastoria’s icons and wall paintings from the best 17 Albani 1996, 839. See also Panayotidi 1989. Byzantine art attained a splendor equal to artists of their city or other remote areas. 18 Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 29. 19 Malmquist 1979; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, that of the capital under the imperial family These latter, works of religious art, the most 22–49. of the Komnenoi. Later, with the break-up brilliant and representative art of the major 20 Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 6–21. 21 or dissolution of the empire, it was forced cities of the Byzantine Empire, were costly Siomkos 2005. 22 Sisiu 2007. to fall back on its traditions and create as well as pious dedications by the small 23 Gelzer 1902; Péchayre 1936. “local schools,” following a gradual course of society of Kastoria. At the same time they 24 Ostrogorsky 1971; Angold 1984. 25 Tsigaridas 1988; Drakopoulou 1997, 27–56. popularization. What is impressive is the emerge through their artistic value and the 26 Malmquist 1979; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, way art continued to function. Tastes and testimony of their inscriptions as a vibrant, 22–49; Panayotidi 2006. uses which had once been monopolized by reliable, and usable piece in the cultural 27 Djuric ́ 1993; Sinkevic ́ 2000. 28 Drakopoulou 1997, 41–52. 29 Drakopoulou and Loukaki 1989. 30 Angold 1984, 241. 31 Jaubert 1975, 291. 32 Molho and Mevorah 1938, 11–12. 33 Thiriet 1975, 59. 34 Oikonomides 1996. 35 Avramea 2002. 36 Δsigaridas 1992; Drakopoulou 1997, 156–58. 37 Geanakoplos 1953. 38 Epstein 1982; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 66–81. 39 Papamastorakis 1991. 40 Rallis and Potlis 1855, 403–6, 430–36. 41 Bogevska 2012. 42 ªavropoulou-Δsioumi 1973; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 84–91; Papamastorakis 2003. 43 Pelekanidis 1978; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 92–105. 44 Kalopissi-Verti 1992, 95–96; Drakopoulou 1997, 77–78. 45 Nicol 1984, 131ff. 46 Drakopoulou 1996. 47 Djurić 1975; Pelekanides and Chatzidakes 1985, 106–19. 48 Δsigaridas 1986. 49 Drakopoulou 1997, 123–24; Sisiu 2011. 50 Todorov 1983; ªoustakas 2012. 51 Radojčič 1965; Chatzidakis 1972, 192–93. 52 Drakopoulou 1997, 130–33. Fig. 108 | Saints Nicholas of Vounena (Saint Nicholas “the New”) and Alexander of Pydna, detail of the “Royal Deësis.” 53 Drakopoulou 2003. Wall painting, 14th century. Kastoria, church of Hagios Athanasios tou Mouzake, north wall. 54 Drakopoulou 2005, 19-21.

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