14/11/2006
Murals

Triantaphyllos Sioulis © Ioannina Prefecture

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A systematic investigation, beyond the various smaller investigations by other researchers, on the Kapesovo hagiographers has been completed by Demetris Kostantios in his Doctoral thesis on the subject: «Approach to the work by the painters from Kapesovo in Epirus. Contribution to the research of religious painting in Epirus in the 18th and the 1st half of the 19th century»; who is presently the director at the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens; formerly the principal of the 8th Ephorate for Byzantine Antiquities at Ioannina.
The continual research by other researchers has brought to the light of day other mural ensembles and very many portable icons that carry the names of Kapesovo hagiographers.
There are mural ensembles at: 1) the Siatista region and specifically at the church of the Prophet Elias in 1742, where the hagiography was carried out by Anastasios Ioannou Kaloudis and his brothers; 2) furthermore in the broader Siatista region the Kapesovo painters father – Georgios Oikonomos and his son Anagnostes carried out the hagiography in the catholicon at the Monastery of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Mikrokastron (formerly Tsiaroutsino) (1797); 3) Anastasios at Skamneli, in the narthex at the Monastery of Aghia Paraskevi (1743); 4) Anastasios at the church of Taxiarches at Kato Pedina (1749); 5) Anastasios and his sons Ioannis and Georgios at the church of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Kapesovo (1761); 6) Anastasios and his sons Ioannis and Georgios in the catholicon at the Monastery of Aghios Ioannis at Rongove, in Tsepelovo (1765); 7) Ioannis and Georgios sons of Athanasios at the Monastery of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Makrinos (1792); 8) Ioannis son of Athanasios and his son Anastasios Anagnostes, together with the brother of father – Georgios at the church of Aghios Nikolaos in Tsepelovo (1786); 9) Ioannis son of Athanasios and his son Anastasios Anagnostes at the church of Aghios Nikolaos in Kapesovo (1793); 10) Furthermore, Ioannis son of Athanasios and his son Anastasios Anagnostes at the church of Aghios Georgios at Negades (1795); as well as: 11) Ioannis son of Athanasios and his son Anastasios Anagnostes at the church of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Ariste (formerly Artsista) (1806); 12) Anastasios Anagnostes son of Oikonomou at the church of Aghios Menas at Dikorphon (formerly Zondela) (1812); 13) Anastasios Anagnostes and his son Georgios in the catholicon at the Monastery of Bisoko at Kalouta (1818); 14) Ioannis at the Monastery of the Birth of the Virgin Mary at Kepoi (Bangia) (1841); 15) Anastasios and his son Ioannis at the church of Taxiarches at Chrysorrache (formerly Zagoriane) (1754); 16) Anastasios in the narthex in the catholicon at the Monastery of Eleousa on Ioannina Island (1759); 17) Anastasios and his sons Ioannis and Georgios in the catholicon at the Monastery of Aghios Ioannis Prodromos at Lykotrichion or Kryas (formerly Banista) (1759); 18) Athanasios monk and his son Ioannis at the church of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Photeino (formerly Zelista) (1761); 19) Ioannis son of Nitzos at the church of Aghioi Apostoloi at Derviziana (1764); where he collaborated with the painter Ioannis son of Theodoros from Lozetsi (present day Hellenikon); 20) Athanasios and his sons Ioannis and Georgios at the church of Aghios Charalambos at Perama (1769); 21) Ioannis son of Nikolaos in the catholicon at the Monastery of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Grimbovo (1774); 22) Athanasios monk and his sons Ioannis and Georgios at the church of Aghios Georgios at Kourenta (1777); 23) also Athanasios monk and his sons Ioannis and Georgios in the narthex for the church of Aghioi Petros and Pavlos at Leukothea (formerly Arachovitsa) (1778); 24) Ioannis and Georgios sons of Athanasios at the Monastery of the Repose of the Virgin Mary in Chrysovitsa (1781); 25) Ioannis son of Athanasios and his son Anastasios Anagnostes on the narthex in the catholicon at the Monastery of the Prophet Elias at Zitsa (1800); and 26) Anastasios Anagnostes with his brother Konstantinos in the catholicon at the Monastery of Aghios Nikolaos at Grammeno (1805).
Here we must also refer to the mural ensemble: 27) at the church of Aghioi Menas, Victor and Vicentios in 1728, where the hagiography was carried out by Konstantinos priest and his brothers Anastasios and Nikolaos in the Siatista region.
Their technique and mood are based on the school of north Western Greece and clearly Byzantine models.
The iconography programme of the churches where they are carrying out the hagiography was based upon the Palaeologean and the Cretan tradition. On the lower section there were full bodied saints, thereafter there was a zone with busts, the Twelve festivals occupied the next two or three zones, the Passion, the Akathist Hymn or the sufferings of the saints followed, the Pantokrator in the dome, as well as the Angel of the Great Design and Emmanuel in the plagial «choirs». On the western wall at the church of the Repose there dominates, the Flight from Egypt in addition to the tomb of the Virgin Mary. The arches in the pillar elements were covered with subjects from the Old Testament. The hagiography in the sanctuary dealt with subjects from the Eucharist, the Matins Gospels, scenes from the Old Testament (e.g. The hospitality of Abraham, pre icons of the Virgin Mary), the New Testament (e.g. healing of the blind, healing of the paralysed) as well as the tradition (e.g. the Vision by Petros of Alexandria, the Ecumenical synods). At the corner of the sanctuary was the Platytera and below that the Holy Fathers or the community of the Apostles. The hagiography in the narthex of the churches had subjects that dealt with eschatological matters, such as the Second Coming on the Eastern Wall, as well as the various sufferings by the saints.