Jenny Albani
Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs; Hellenic Open University, Athens, Greece
Palaeologan Renaissance, the flourishing in art and the letters in the Byzantine Empire under the Palaeologan dynasty, can be also attested in Venetian Crete. The small church of the Panagia in the village of Sklavopoula, diocese of Selino, western Crete, is decorated with wall paintings which can be related to an elegant stylistic trend deriving from Constantinople and dated to around 1400.
The church in question, dedicated to the Virgin, is a single-nave building, measuring 7.66 × 5.33 m, with a semi-circular apse projecting on the east. It is covered by a pointed barrel-vault and divided by a transverse strainer arch in two bays. Its south wall, which is pierced by a window, is supported by two buttresses. The entrance door is set in the west wall.
The iconographic programme of the sanctuary comprises the Virgin Blachernitissa flanked by two miniature archangels, the Melismos among four co-officiating bishops, the Ascension, the Annunciation, the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Marys at the Tomb, church fathers and holy deacons. The painted decoration of the naos comprises Christological scenes (Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Betrayal of Judas, Crucifixion, Descent into Hell, Incredulity of St. Thomas, Pentecost), a few scenes from the life of the Virgin (Prayer of St. Anne, Birth of the Virgin, Blessing of the Priests), a large composition of the Last Judgment and portraits of saints (a monk, St. Nicholas, Archangel Michael, warrior saints, Virgin Hodegetria). On the west part of the north wall we face the donor portrait with a partially preserved dedicatory inscription.
The study of the painted decoration in the church of the Panagia in Sklavopoula, which was probably associated with aristocratic patronage, can shed light on art and society of Crete under Venetian rule.