Triantaphyllos Sioulis © Prefecture of Ioannina

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At Metsovo the art of wood sculpture commenced a long time ago, during the Byzantine years. «THE GREAT PEAK AND THE BLOSSOMING OF THE METSOVO POPULAR ART COMMENCED AFTER 1659, WITH THE EXCELLENT POLITICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL PRIVILEGES, WHICH THE METSOVO PRIMARY CHIEF SHEPHERD KYRGOS PHLOKAS HAD EXTRACTED FROM THE SUBLIME PORTE THAT RENDERED METSOVO AN AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC. … IT WAS THEN THAT WOOD SCULPTURE ESCAPED FROM BEING A CRAFT AND ASCENDED INTO THE AREA OF ART WITH THE ICONOSTASES, THE DESPOTIC THRONES, THE PULPITS, THE ICON STANDS, THE CIBORIUMS FOR THE EPITAPHS, THE LECTERNS, THE CANDELABRA, THE CANDLE STANDS AND THE SO MANY OTHER ‘‘ACCESSORIES’’ OF THE CHURCHES … IT HAS CONTINUED FROM THE 17TH CENTURY UP TO THIS DAY, AND HAS REACHED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION INTO THE HANDS OF THE PRESENT DAY TALIADOROI. THE ‘‘COMPANIES’ OF TALIADOROI AT METSOVO REACHED THE MOST REMOTE CITIES, IN ORDER TO UNDERTAKE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WORKS OF WOOD SCULPTURE AND ACCORDINGLY RE-TRANSMIT THEIR ART...FROM THE ‘‘NOTE BOOKS’’ THAT THEY CARRIED IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THEY HAD A MAGNIFICENT GUILD ORGANISATION, WHILST FROM THE OTHER JOURNALS THAT THEY CARRIED WE HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THEY HAD AN ECCLESIASTICAL EDUCATION TOGETHER WITH THE DESIRE IN THE HEART, LIKE THOSE TREMORS IN THE HAGIOGRAPHERS, WHO ALWAYS CARRIED IN THEIR KNAPSACK A COPY OF THE ‘‘INTERPRETATION OF THE ART OF PAINTING’’, AS WELL AS THE ‘‘LIVES’’ OF THE SAINTS».
Nevertheless, they all worked with artistic feeling and had the same passion for the work: «MAJOR OR MINOR CRAFTSMEN, THEY ALL WORKED WITH THE SAME PASSION AND THE SAME DESIRE OF BEAUTY. IN EACH COMPMANY THERE WAS A MASTER CRAFTSMAN WHO CREATED THE DESIGN, WHO CARVED THE MOST DIFFICULT SECTIONS AND WHO MONITORED THE WORK OF THE OTHERS».