Elena Pozdnyakova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
This report focuses on a stylistic analysis of insufficiently studied Byzantine frescoes of the church of Evangelistria in the village of Geraki in southern Peloponnese, dating supposedly to the last quarter of the 12th century. As Evangelistria frescoes lack the homogeneous quality, we define four aesthetic types or manners (basically our concept of “type” includes both adopted stylistic and technical approach and spiritual appearance of characters) and correlate them with different aspects of later Comnenian style. To place Evangelistria in appropriate context, we form a group of Peloponnesian monuments that are roughly contemporary and stylistically related with it. We also investigate the question of stylistic unity of all those fresco cycles and determine the place of analyzed murals in stylistic development of the second half of the 12th century. In conclusion, the paper sheds some new light on the still little recognized issues of coexistence and interrelationship of expressive and classicizing stylistic tendencies during the last quarter of the 12th century and the ways of transformation of metropolitan stylistic trends in province.