14/11/2006
Influences that they received and the adaptations that they made

Triantaphyllos Sioulis © Ioannina Prefecture

print preview

The Kapesovo painters drew a lot of their iconography elements from murals of the Palaeologean era that we have encountered in Macedonia, as well as elements from the works of the Cretan painters in the 15th and 16th century.
Their familiarity with the monuments of the 16th century such as the monasteries of Philanthropoi (1531-1532), Dilion (1543), Aghios Nikolaos at Krapse (1563), Transformation at Beltsista (Frangos Kontares 1568), as well as with the works of the painters from the Linotopi at Kastoria in the wider Western Macedonia region up to the first half of the 17th century, which refer to earlier models and trends (14th - 16th century), is evident.
The influences are limited, especially in the works of the 18th century, by the popularized Baroque elements, if we assess them on the basis of the immobility and the seriousness in the expressions of the figures, as well as the predominance of the traditional Byzantine motifs.
Despite all these they still accepted westernizing influences, with an eclectic disposition, which they very skilfully adapted to their works, with the result that they were assimilated by the overall nature of the work. These appear, for example, in the various buildings or the love of beauty in the faces of some figures, and even in the light tones that they have utilised here and there in the representations that they painted in the hagiographies. Furthermore, the rendering of the wise men of Ancient Greece in the dress of Western literary, is a fact that is indicative of the influences that they accepted.
They borrowed motifs, symbols, dresses, various stances from the lithographs, copper etchings, etc. that were circulating in order to make their painting more impressive and imposing.
This fact refers to the trends and the styles that prevailed during the specific period in Europe and the West and reached there, as a consequence of contacts (commercial and other) that were developed.
Subsequent to 1800, the nature of their works changed in stages, with the influx of the Baroque elements from the West and the influences are more pronounced.
A significant role in terms of the influences that they accepted was also played by the more general of the age in which they were active. The development of trade resulted in the clients – donors having an opinion about the work, which they had formulated in the West, in Central Europe or in Russia. Furthermore, the change in attitude, due to the spirit of neo Hellenic Enlightenment that was prevailing, resulted in new perspectives also appearing in the decoration of the churches.
The resistance however by the Kapesovo hagiographers, who had been deeply imbued in the orthodox tradition, as well as by the people who managed the Church, literary a certain number of these (deacons, priests, monks), is also intense and successful to a very high degree.