BYZANTINE MACEDONIA ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART
ODOMANTIS7
The arrival of the Apostie Paul in Macedonia and the founding of Europe's first
Christian communities at Philippi, Thessaloniki, and Beroea, were a landmark in
the history of Western civilisation. Archaeological finds from the fourth
century A.D., which was when Constantine the Great (306-37) decided to found
Constantinople (330), separate the Eastern Roman Empire from Rome, and wed the
two worlds of paganism and Christianity, show the strongly Hellenic flavour of
Christianity in Macedonia.
At Philippi, for instance, a pagan heroon functioned side by side with the
city's first Christian church, dedicated to St Paul; and in Thessaloniki a
local martyr, St Demetrius, replaced the city's age-old deity Cabirus in the
hearts and minds of the Thessalonians. Until Justinian I's time (527-65),
Christianity in Macedonia was closely interwoven with the Greek and Roman
tradition. Tombs found in Thessaloniki are decorated with wall-paintings which
accompanied the deceased on their final journey with, symbolic representations
of the promised Paradise; the angels with their wreaths and colourful banners
are frequently reminiscent of the cupids of antiquity. Large and small church
complexes were built in the Macedonian cities and countryside and adorned with
lovely mosaic floors with images of deer (Amphipolis), doves (Akrini, near
Kozani), and symbolic representations of Paradise (Heraclea Lyncestis). A few
wall mosaics from this period survive in churches in Thessaloniki (in the
Rotunda of St George, St Demetrius, Latomou Monastery, and Acheiropoietos) . In
contrast to the formal tradition of Constantinople and the solemn symbolism of
Rome, early Christian painting in Thessaloniki freely approaches divine
visions, and colours the transcendent with the poetry of natural light.
Late antiquity ended in Macedonia in the early seventh century and was followed
by the Iconoclast controversy (726-87 and 815-43). Archaeological remains of
any note from this transitional period are to be found only in Thessaloniki.
Around 620, the Basilica of St Demetrius was restored and the fact commemorated
in the church's contemporary mosaics, in which transcendence takes the place of
the dramatic style of the fifth and sixth centuries. The sanctuary of Hagia
Sophia was decorated with iconoclast mosaics, of which all that survive today
are the monograms of Constantine VI (780-7), his mother Irene, and Archbishop
Theophilus of Thessaloniki. After the Iconoclast period and throughout the long
age of Macedonian supremacy (867-1057), Macedonia's cities were re-organised
and monastic centres, such as Mount Athos, where established.
New types of ecclesiastical architecture emerged, which departed significantly
from the early Christian models, producing smaller structures dominated by a
central dome. A Byzantine church is an earthly replica of the world above, wich
is simultaneously represents and contains. Metropolitan churches, however,
still tended to be basilicas: the Protaton on Mount Athos, for instance, St
Achillius on Lake Prespa, and the cathedrals of Beroea, Edessa, Serres, Melnik,
and Kalambaka. Ecclesiastical art after Iconoclasm (exemplified by the mosaic
of the Ascension in Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki (9th c.), and the wall-paintings
in the Church of St Stephen in Kastoria (10th c.) and in the Panagia Chalkeon
in Thessaloniki (1030-40)) shows a clear anticlassical tendency strongly
influenced by a world viewed through the prism of the monastic ideal.
As a reaction to this, the ideology of the Comnenian period (1081-1185) brought
with it a different kind of ecclesiastical art, which was closer to urban life,
classical education, and human emotion. A number of Macedonian monuments
preserve astonishing wall-paintings with these features, some of them done in a
common and human style (as in St Nicholas Casnitzes in Kastoria), others with
somewhat þ academic overtones (as in Latomou Monastery), and yet others, later
on, executed in a dynamic, mannerist style (as in St George in Kurbinovo (1191)
and Aghii Anargyri in Kastoria) . During this period, the cult of St Demetrius
was something of a speciai case. As a high-ranking official amd a warrior,
Thessaloniki's patron saint differed little from the city patrons and heroes of
antiquity. After Iconoclasm, however, he was transformed into an ascetic
champion of the Christian faith; and the aromatic exudation which miraculously
emanated from his corpse brought him into direct and thaumaturgical contact
with the pilgrims who flocked to his tomb from all over Macedonia and the
Byzantine Empire. The period of Frankish rule (1204-61) left no traces in
Macedonia, though a few wooden relief icons from the Kastoria area display a
hint of Western influence. In the Palaeologan period (1261-1453) , political,
spiritual, artistic, and commercial decentralisation allowed provincial cities
to rival the capitat.
At this time, Thessaloniki, as the capital of Macedonia, displayed all the
typical features of Byzantium's second city. In the city itself and in the area
under its influence, churchs were characterised by the addition of an
ambulatory, which gave them increased size and more harmonious proportions
(examples are the Churches of the Holy Apostles and St Catherine in
Thessaloniki and the main church of the Monastery of St John the Baptist in
Serres). Amongst the many anonymous painters from this period, a few splendid
names stand out: Manuel Panselinos, for instance, who painted the Protaton on
Mount Athos in 1300. The size of his figures and the harmony of his
compositions explain why his fame was still very much alive for his fellow
artists of the seventeenth century. Eutychius and Michael Astrapas from
Thessaloniki painted the Church of the Peribleptos in Ohrid and, later on,
other churches in the area, imbuing their compositions with an unwonted
richness. George Kallierges painted the Church of Christ's Resurrection in
Beroea at the beginning of the fourteenth century and did not hesitate to
describe himself as "the best painter in all Thessaly" (i.e. Macedonia). Owing
to its realism, Macedonian painting has come to be regarded as a distinct
school in its own right; it cannot be a purely local phenomenon, however, but
rather a product of Macedonia's close links with Constantinople. The production
of glazed ceramic ware arose out of the commercial decentralisation of the
Palaeologan period. We know of two ceramics centres in Macedonia at this time,
Thessaloniki and Serres, whose products were distributed far and wide. When the
Turks captured Thessaloniki in 1430 and overran Macedonia, the whole region
dwindled into a mere province. But despite the city's reduced circumstances, a
splendid tomb, erected in 1481 in the Basilica of St Demetrius, is astonishing
in its size and extravagance. Sculptured out af Italian stone in the Venetian
workshop of Pietro Lombardo, it can only be compared to the tombs of the doges.
It is possrbly the last tomb of the Byzantine aristocracy and belongs to Loukas
Spandounis, a member of a family of Macedonian merchants, whom his epitaph
describes as "hope, life, light, delight of Byzantium and scion of the Greeks".
MAKEDONIA DORIAN NATION
IF YOU ARE MAKEDONIAN THEN YOU ARE GREEK!!
ODOMANTIS