The painter Xenos Dighenis in Epirus


Published: Feb 3, 2016
Keywords:
Post-Byzantine period 15th century wallpaintings painter Xenos Dighenis iconography Cretan School Epirus church of the Panagia in Kato Meropi
Παναγιώτης Λ. ΒΟΚΟΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ
Abstract

The Peloponnesian painter Xenos Dighenis decorated the churches of the Hagioi Pateres in Apano Floria, Selino district (Crete) (1470) and the Myrtia monastery in Aitolia (1491) with frescoes that were typical of the Cretan School. A third fresco ensemble in the church of the Panagia in Kato Meropi (Epirus) is preserved in very bad condition following a fire that also destroyed the inscription containing the date. The preserved frescoes also follow Cretan iconography and style, but their iconography has been influenced to a small degree by the art of Epirus and Macedonia (the Mocking of Christ), while their depiction of the elderly figures was influenced by the anti-Classical tendency of late 15th century painting in Western Macedonia (the hierarchs in the apse). Such influences do not exist in the monastery of Myrtia, and would suggest a later dating for the wall decoration of Kato Meropi.

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