Southern Italy, Cyprus, and the Holy Land: A Tale of Parallel Aesthetics?

Author(s): ANTHI ANDRONIKOU

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 99, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2017), pp. 6-29
Published by: CAA
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44972933
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 Southern Italy, Cyprus, and the
Holy Land: A Tale of Parallel Aesthetics?
ANTHI ANDRONIKOU

It is a fact that in the course of art it has been proved that resemblance [b

is ofien much deeper and does not necessarily emanate from direct recepti

mon ancestors as well as enlightened descendants.

- Dimitris Kalokyris, / lapaoáyyeç '. Parasangs ], vol. i, OvofiaoriKÓv [ Collection of Name

Notwithstanding a number of scholarly contributions to the field, th

southern Italy and Cyprus in monumental painting during the thirte
been generally neglected or approached in a generic fashion. The top
1960s and 1980s by various scholars who based their assumptions on
Georgios Soteriou and Maria Soteriou s seminal work, Eikóv
(Icons of Mount Sinai ; 1956-58). 2 The Greek scholars drew atte

ity between monumental painting in Apulia and Cyprus and

in Mount Sinai, among them a series of small icons depicting
example, Saints Catherine and Marina, and Saints Symeon Sty
Fig. i).3 They noted that "the rounded type of faces with gree
outlines and regular linear features resemble thirteenth- or ear

frescoes in the grottos of Apulia; even closer is the relation the

saints in Moutoullas, Cyprus, 1280."4 In particular, they corre
the Sinaitic icon with Saint Margaret in the homonymous cry
(Fig. 13), and Saint Barbara in the church of the Panagia in M
The Soterious' monograph laid the foundation for this area of
following years, the theme of artistic exchanges between the tw
current, particularly in the work of Valentino Pace.6 However,

Weitzmann had revisited the issue and concluded that many i

astery of Saint Catherine at Sinai were to be ascribed to an Ap
strong Venetian connections, who might have been active in A
between 1244 and 1291, and whom he nominated "Master of t
plars." His thesis was later revised and the workshop was reba
"Southern Italian Painters."7 The group was also dubbed "Ven
sader," since "Venice itself [was] apparently a cosmopolitan art

1 Saints Symeon Stylites and Barbara, late 13th cen-

southern Italian art was entirely dismissed from the discussion.

ToHoly
tury, tempera on wood, 13 x 9% in. (33 x 25 cm). add to the debate, the involvement of a Syrian artist who h
Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (artwork
in the public domain; photograph by
has been suggested by Doula Mouriki for the frescoes of Panagia in
permission of
already
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, provided mentioned,
by Sinai share a wealth of common features with the sma
Icon Archive, Department of Art and Archaeology,
Princeton University)
with Apulian works;9 among them are the representation of frontal fi
iconic and devotional character, relief halos rimmed with pearls, gar
kind of grid (often bearing lozenge-shaped ornaments) and punctuat
that do not adhere to the silhouette of the body, heightened linearit
faces, and so forth.10 Mouriki s crucial suggestions vis-à-vis the involv
in Cyprus have been further advanced in more recent studies by Luc
Folda, Nada Hélou, Erica Cruikshank Dodd, and Mat Immerzeel.11 I

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 scholars have investigated little-known material from Syria and Lebanon and avowed that
Cyprus-related artists were involved in the making of frescoes in these regions. For instance,
wall paintings in the church of Mar Fauqa (Saint Phocas) in Amiun, Lebanon (first layeę, ca.
1200), have been credited with a Cypriot quality, while frescoes in the chapel of Mar Elias
(Saint Elijah) in Macarrat Saydnaya, Syria (first half of the thirteenth century), have been
assigned to a Cypriot master.12 Equally, the thirteenth-century bilateral icon in the Monastery
of Our Lady of Kaftun (1260s), intended for Melkite Christians, has now been ascribed to
Tripolitan painters, who had also been engaged in other Lebanese churches, such as Deir
Saydet-Qannubin (Our Lady of Quannubin), Deir Hamatura (Our Lady of Hamatura), and
the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Kaftun. This association of artists, termed the
"Collective of the Soldier Saints" by Immerzeel, has been deemed responsible for the creation
of Sinaitic icons, some of them formerly lumped under Weitzmanns category of the "Master
of the Knights Templars." In Immerzeels and Hélou s view, these painters "had - at the very
least - connections to the island, or may even have received their education in Cypriot work-
shops."13 At the opposite end, we find the so-called Master of Bahdeidat, exponent of the
"Syrian style," according to Immerzeel, who was active roughly in the mid-thirteenth century
and whose output had an important impact on his colleagues.14
Such taxonomie classifications may tend to obscure more than they clarify, insofar as
a single scholar may offer various attributions regarding a panels painter and the place of pro-
duction.15 The situation is also hampered by the fact that few inscriptions survive to elucidate
their painters, commissioners, or any other practices of workshops and their organization.16
Even in the exceptional cases when dedicatory inscriptions exist, their interpretation is not
always judicious, thus leading to erroneous deductions à propos the origins of an artist. A
characteristic example is that of an icon depicting Saints George and Theodore on horseback
with a small portrait of the supplicant and the Greek inscription "ae(hcic) toy/ aoyaoy/
toy ©(eo)y/ TEOp/riOY toy riA/pici[oY]" (Supplication of the servant of God George Parisi [s]
or Parisi [ou]). Weitzmann, who first published the icon, assigned it to a French master
based partly on the "moody" expression of Saint Theodore, but mainly on the small figure
of George (Fig. 3). He interpreted the inscription in the following way: "i.e., he is a pilgrim
from Paris, who most likely commissioned a compatriot painter in the Holy Land to execute
this icon

Yet if George were indeed from Paris, the insc

read: "eie too napioioo" and not "too napioi[oo]."1
have belonged to the noble Italian family De Pari
which from the eleventh to the fourteenth centu
city of Messina, Sicily.19 The names of certain m
Philippo) occur in papal documents. Apparently,

2 Saint Barbara, 1280, detail showing the upper part

of the saint, mural. Church of Panagia, Moutoullas,
Cyprus, west wall (artwork in the public domain;
photograph by the author, by permission of the Holy
Bishopric of Morfou)
had a dispute with the powerful Greek monastery
("Lighthouse Tongue") over the ownership of som
was located.20 In my view, the spelling tou Parisio
surname De Parisi(o)' analogous translations are to
instance, the Greek name tou Eupheme , which in
The "Cyprus question" in Italian art of the thirt
approaches that historically confined themselves to
convincing conclusions. The absence of an adequat
Cypriot and southern Italian art has led some schol

and to deem these stylistic similarities circumstanti

revision, as we urgently need to address the histori

7 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND

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3 Saints Theodore and George on Horseback with the
Supplicant George Parisis, 13th century, tempera and
gold on wood, 12% x 8% in. (32.5 x 22.2 cm). Holy
Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (artwork
in the public domain; photograph by permission of
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, provided by Sinai
Icon Archive, Department of Art and Archaeology,
Princeton University)
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that I seek to fill by examining a cluster of churches that point to some kind of connection
between the two regions.23 These cultural exchanges are best investigated through the study of
artifacts as records of historical realities rather than as products of casual artistic affinities.
LUSIGNAN CYPRUS AND THE VISUAL COLONIZATION OF APULIA?
In his pioneering article written in 1985, Pace posits some images expre
between Apulian and Cypriot painting. He compares, for example, the
Saint George in Moutoullas with Saint Theodore from the church of
(second half of the thirteenth century) and comments on the detail of
God, whose presence in both churches could imply a certain affinity be
5). 24 Nevertheless, the same scene can be found in Lebanon, namely,
Eddé al-Batrun, and Mar Tadros (Saint Theodore), Bahdeidat (both ch
the hand of God blesses the mounted saints (Fig. 6). 25 Likewise, Saint
cro in Barletta manifests a sensibility similar to that displayed in the w
saints in the hermitage of Saint Neophytos in Paphos (1196) and to the
8 The Art Bulletin September 2017
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4 Saint George, 1280, mural. Church of Panagia,
Moutoullas, Cyprus, north wall (artwork in the public
domain; photograph by the author, by permission of
the Holy Bishopric of Morfou)

5 Saint Theodore on Horseback, 13th century, mural.

Pinacoteca Provinciale, Bari (formerly, the rock-cut
church of San Nicola, Faggiano) (artwork in the public
domain; photograph and permission provided by the
Servizio Beni e Attività Artistiche e Culturali, Pinaco-
teca "Corrado Giaquinto," Bari)

6 Horse's Head and the Manus Dei, ca. 1250-70,

mural. Church of Mar Saba (Saint Sawas), Eddé
al-Batrun, Lebanon, south wall (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by Mat Immerzeel,
Paul van Moorsel Centre, VU University Amsterdam)

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7 Saint Nicholas , detail showing the saint's facial the Church of Christ Antiphonites in Kalograia (ca. 1200). 26 Moreover, the image of Saint Nich-
features, 13th century, mural. Church of Santissima
Trinità (now Santa Lucia), Brindisi, Italy, southwestern
olas in the homonymous church in Mottola and in the church of Santa Lucia in Brindisi is rem-
pillar of the crypt (artwork in the public domain; photo- iniscent of Saint Nicholas in the renowned icon from Kakopetria, Cyprus (Figs. 7, 8). 27
graph by permission of the Soprintendenza Archeologia,
Belle Arti e Paessaggio per la città metropolitana di Bari)
A meticulous examination of the frescoes elicits further comparando,. For instance,
the Virgin in prayer depicted on the pilaster of the north wall at Moutoullas, with her round
8 "Vita Panel" of Saint Nicholas tes Steges with »
Supplicants, from the Church of Saint Nicholas tes face, small, plump lips with flared ends, and visible neck muscles, bears some similarity to
Steges, Kakopetria, Cyprus, detail showing facial
the portrait of Saint Paraskevi in the crypt of San Nicola in Mottola (Figs. 9, 11). The Virgin
features, late 13th century, tempera, gold, and
gesso on parchment and wood, 797/s x 62 V4 in. Blachernitissa in the apse of Moutoullas, with her small eyes, rounded, doll-like face, and
(203 x 158 cm). Archbishop Makarios III Foundation-
Byzantine Museum, Nicosia (artwork in the public
prominent nostrils, is almost identical to the Enthroned Virgin in San Vito Vecchio in
domain) Gravina (Figs. 10, 19). In fact, following the model of a purely stylistic approach, this last
resemblance alone would be sufficient to corroborate the existence of interaction between

painters from both regions.

Despite the accumulation of several comparable images, Pace rightly acknowledges
that these suggestive correspondences are confined to generic visual formulas.28 However,
from these circumstantial analogies, certain scholars, adducing examples like the crypt of San
Vito Vecchio in Gravina (late thirteenth century), presuppose the activity of "Western" paint-
ers in Cyprus and the subsequent transfer of artistic knowledge back to Italy by these artists.29
But what exactly do we mean by "Western" painters? Should we consider as "Western" the
painter Paolo from Otranto, who, in the late twelfth century, was called to Constantinople
to paint the cupola surmounting the fountain (<¡>iáÁrj) of the Evergetis monastery? Or should
we name "Western" the Greek-speaking painters N. Melitinos and Nicola, who decorated the
church of San Nicola in Celsorizzo and who adopted, in spite of their pedigree, a style close
to that of "Crusader art"?30 When we uncover insights into the visual arts of southern Italy,
it is essential that we always bear in mind the social realities of the region and the fact that in
most cases the identity of cultural groups was fluid.31
When probing kindred images from southern Italy and Cyprus, it is important
to keep in mind that identical forms were used to address dissimilar audiences, each with
its own various devotional practices, spectatorship habits, and communicative systems.

10 The Art Bulletin September 2017

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9 The Praying Virgin, 1280, mural. Church of the
Panagia, Moutoullas, Cyprus, pilaster of the north wall
of the nave (artwork in the public domain; photograph
by the author, by permission of the Holy Bishopric
of Morfou)
10 Virgin Biachernitissa, 1280, mural. Church of the
Panagia, Moutoullas, Cyprus, Holy Bema, conch of the
apse (artwork in the public domain; photograph by the
author, by permission of the Holy Bishopric of Morfou)
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According to the linguistic theory of signs, images may constitute similar signs {signifiers) ,
which, nonetheless, represent dissimilar concepts (. signifieds ), in which case they are called
"arbitrary signifiers."32 The portrait of the Orthodox Saint Paraskevi (in Greek; Parasceve in
Italian) in San Nicola in Mottola (thirteenth-century redecoration) is an illustrative case in
point, where the saint is inscribed as "s(an)c(t)a pa/ra/sce/(ve)" and not Venera(nda), her
Italian denomination (Fig. n).33 Her depiction, however, does not recall Cypriot images,
in which she is typically clad in a dark maphorion and carries a clipeus with the image of
the Man of Sorrows.34 The Apulian saint sports a red maphorion and clutches the cross of
her martyrdom, evoking the portraits of Saint Marina in the churches of the Panagia in
Moutoullas (1280) and Saint Herakledios at the Monastery of Saint John Lampadistes in
Kalopanagiotes, Cyprus (ca. 1270-80, Fig. 12). 35 Nevertheless, in terms of typology the
Apulian Saint Paraskevi and and the two Cypriot depictions of Saint Marina appear to have
derived from an identical model.36 They all wear a light brownish tunic and a scarlet mapho-
rion , the latter enlivened with pearl motifs. Their gestures are identical and their facial
features comparable, the Cypriot examples being more elaborate, more expressive, and
closer to the smooth, porcelain faces of late thirteenth-century art. To return to the theory
of signs, in Apulia, the Cypriot typology of Saint Marina constitutes an arbitrary signifier
with its signified being hijacked by Saint Parasceve.37 Saints Marina and Parasceve are, in
fact, faux amis. At the same time, the image of Santa Margherita in Mottola, who represents
Saint Marina of Antioch (renamed Margaret in the West), instead of wearing a vermilion
maphorion , the typical attribute of her Cypriot counterpart, is dressed like an empress
standing beneath an arch (Fig. 13). 38
The tribulations of Saint Marina and Saint Parasceve remind us that the conditions
under which these wall paintings were crafted are the fruit of diverse cultural and religious pro-
cesses whose study cannot be fully explored through a discussion limited to stylistic and icono-
graphie parallels. In Cyprus, for instance, the frescoes compared with Apulian works decorate
small village churches sponsored by local people and destined for an Orthodox-rite laity, while
II SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
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11 Saint Parasceve ( Paraskevi ), late 13th century.
Rock-cut church of San Nicola, Mottola, Taranto, Italy,
intrados of the southeastern pillar of the nave (facing
Saint Nicholas) (artwork in the public domain; photo-
graph by the author)
12 Saint Marina, ca. 1270-80, mural. Church of Saint
Herakledios, Saint John Lampadistes Monastery,
Kalopanagiotes, Cyprus, north face of the southwest-
ern pier of the nave (artwork in the public domain;
photograph by the author, by permission of the Holy
Bishopric of Morfou)
13 Saint Margaret, 13th century, mural. Rock-cut
church of Santa Margherita, Mottola, Taranto, Italy,
southeastern wall in the north aisle of the nave (art-
work in the public domain; photograph by the author)
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the crypts in Apulia were part of a rupestrian culture close to that of Cappadocia.39 The liter-
ature of the first half of the twentieth century regarded these crypts as offshoots of monastic
culture, namely, that of the legendary monaci basiliani , but recent scholarship suggests an
interaction with secular communities.40 These rock-cut churches were loaded with social,
political, economic, and cultural functions and constituted meeting points for the rupestre
populace. Most of the grottoes were directed at Roman Catholic Christians and were backed
by Benedictine monks. On some occasions, where a narrative program existed, the crypts were
destined for Orthodox Christians, while in other instances they were allocated to mixed cults.41
By the thirteenth century their liturgical services were no longer in Greek and the labels on
mural paintings were mostly in Latin or bilingual, with only a few exceptions in Greek.42 In
contrast, all of the thirteenth-century Byzantine churches in Cyprus served a Greek-rite con-
gregation and inscriptions were always written in Greek.
Apulian churches infrequently featured coherent narrative cycles, an early example
being the grotto church of San Biagio at San Vito dei Normanni (1196). 43 The church of
Lama di Penziero near Grottaglie (first half of the thirteenth century), with a Christological
cycle, its scenes labeled in Greek, is another case in point.44 A third instance of a narrative
program is the aforementioned aboveground chapel of San Nicola in Celsorizzo, Acquarica
del Capo (1283), sponsored by Giovani di Ugento, signor of the casale di Cicivizzo, that is,
lord of the village of Cicivizzo, and decorated by the two Greek-Salentine painters.45 By con-
trast, iconic production ( iconismo pugliese) - namely, the representation of individual saints
or pairs of saints with their insignia, which possesses a strong votive/devotional character - is
the prevailing mode of saintly representation in the region.46
12 The Art Bulletin September 2017
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 In Cyprus, however, we mostly find sanctoral cycles par excellence, which typically
form an instructive unity, although in the thirteenth century they "depart sharply from the

organization of traditional Middle Byzantine imagery seen in twelfth and early thirteenth-
century churches, and - in two cases [Kalopanagiotes and Sotera] - verge on the incoherent."47
Evidently, a few votive images appear in Cypriot cycles, but they do not mar the consistency
of the narrative. The equestrian Saint Christopher in Moutoullas, commissioned by a villager
called Christophoros and his wife Maria, is an ex-voto. The saint, mounted on his galloping
horse in the lower zone of the church, along with Saints Theodore and Paul, forms part of the
pictorial program.48
From the evidence gathered so far, it is doubtful that the same painters plied their
trade in both Cyprus and Apulia. Pace, for instance, pointed to the influential power of
imported models, adapted and translated into frescoes by local painters who had icons
or templates at their service.49 It is not necessarily the case, according to Pace, that the
events of 1244 (the capture of Jerusalem by the Khwarezmians) and 1291 (the fall of Acre
to the Mamluks and the end of the Crusader sway in the East) triggered the migration of
"Crusader" masters, who wound their way via Cyprus to Apulia and the Latin West.50 It may
be true that by the end of the thirteenth century artistic output had attained full bloom in

southern Italy, but this fact should not be entirely credited to an excess of available painters;
instead, our focus could more usefully be shifted from artists to commissioners and to the
alteration of societal needs.51

Moreover, another scenario calls for our attention: that of southern Italian painters
who had sojourned in the Holy Land and who subsequently returned to their homes, bring-
ing their new experience and models. It must be remembered that southern Italy had its own
fertile tradition in Byzantine painting, clearly evinced in the well-known churches of Santa
Cristina in Carpignano (959) and San Pietro in Otranto (ca. 1000). 52 In other words, its visual
arts should be construed as a living entity that evolved and interacted with the current trends
of each era, "Crusader art" being just one such trend. The contribution of the Italian south to
the diffusion of the maniera greca across different parts of Italy is decidedly marginalized vis-
à-vis the artistic contributions of Tuscany or Umbria, among others.53

SERENDIPITOUS ENCOUNTERS

It is my contention that the relations of Cyprus and southern Italy are

tal in most cases. A leitmotif of traditional scholarship is that Cyprus w
veyer of templates and artistic formulas to Apulia,54 but closer examin
very early on, Apulia's contacts with the Holy Land were far closer th
with Cyprus. The port of Brindisi, for instance, assumed a major role in

Levant. It was an embarkation station for Crusaders traveling to the

erick II (r. 1220-50) had chosen to depart for the Terra Santa from that
this, in his History of the First Crusade , Robert the Monk (d. 1122) mak
netic preparations undertaken by the Crusaders to dispatch Apulian,
nobles to the Holy Land. He also comments on the notable activity a
Brindisi, Bari, and Otranto, ports that connected the "heel of the boo
shores and the East.56

The dedication of Apulian churches (such as those in Brindisi

Holy Sepulchre is another factor proving the contacts that the Italia
the Near East, lhe church of Santa Maria di Nazareth in Barletta, a
1162, was the principal church that the Nazarene archbishop of Gali
Apulia and Lucania. The seventeenth-century writer Francesco Paol

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14 Saints Thomas , Bartholomew, and Andrew,
ca. 1250-70, mural. Church of Mar Tadros (Saint
Theodore), Bahdeidat, Lebanon, bema in the
semicylinder of the apse (artwork in the public
domain; photograph by Raif Nassif, provided byv
Erica Cruikshank Dodd)
15 Saint John the Evangelist, ca. 1250-70, mural.
Church of Mar Tadros (Saint Theodore), Bahdeidat,
Lebanon, bema in the semicylinder of the apse
(artwork in the public domain; photograph by Mat
Immerzeel, Paul van Moorsel Centre, VU University
Amsterdam)
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"the Nazarene archbishops were arriving in Barletta and later were returning to Nazareth
correspondingly to the rotation of war and peace in Palestine."57 In the city of Barletta, the
canons of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem owned the eponymous church (Santo Sepolcro)
as early as in8. In the same Apulian city, the Templům Domini retained a church of Saint
Mary Magdalen in 1169. 58 In Barletta, again, the Hospitallers owned an "ecclesia sancti
Iohannis ospitalis Baroli" (church of Saint John of the Hospitallers at Barletta, 1157), and we
know that a prior of the Apulian Hospitallers and a prior of Messina attended a chapter held
in Jerusalem in 1171-72.59
Apulia was also an important place of pilgrimage, for it was the site of the grotto of
Archangel Michael (Monte Sant'Angelo) and sheltered the relics of Saint Nicholas in Bari
after their translation there in 1087. Many pilgrims heading from Europe to the Holy Land
would break their journey in Apulia.60 The enthusiasm of Apulians for the Holy Land has
also been recorded on several occasions. An example is the Abbess Aloysia of the monastery
of San Bartolomeo in Taranto, who between 1124 and 1126 retired to Jerusalem, where she
remained until her death. Likewise, in 1214 the priest Lorenzo, son of Angelo, decided to
undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and before his departure he bequeathed his fortune
post o bitum to the church of Sant'Angelo in Terlizzi.61 A reverse example of a donation by a
pilgrim is the small church of San Pietro dei Samari near Gallipoli. The chapel was founded
by the French noble "Hugo Lusignanus crucisignatorum dux e Palestina redux" during his
passage through the Terra d'Otranto on his way home. A Crusader, Hugh was in this case a
pilgrim. He has been linked with Hugh VII Lusignan (1065-1151), who accompanied Louis VII
(1120-1180) to the Holy Land during the Second Crusade, between 1145 and 1148.62 The church
of San Pietro proves that pilgrims who were traveling through Apulia might undertake a
religious commission.
The close links between Apulia and the Holy Land may also be reflected in some of
the wall paintings in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.63 Although Gustav Kiihnel
14 The Art Bulletin September 2017
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16 Enthroned Christ and Virgin Hodegetria, 1280,
mural. Church of Panagia, Moutoullas, Cyprus, south
pilaster and south wall of the nave (artwork in the pub-
lic domain; photograph by the author, by permission of
the Holy Bishopric of Morfou)
17 Saint Paul, 1280, mural, detail showing the saint
blessing in the Syrian manner. Church of Panagia,
Moutoullas, Cyprus, south wall of the nave (artwork
in the public domain; photograph by the author, by
permission of the Holy Bishopric of Morfou)
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does not express this idea explicitly, his study has implied the involvement of southern Italians
in the creation of the devotional "icons" on some of the columns of the basilica (1130-87). 64
He attributes, for instance, Saints Mary Glykophilousa (1130) and Galaktotrophousa (mid-
1130s) to two different artists, most likely of southern Italian extraction.65 He reckons the same
for Saint Anne Nikopoios, who assimilates an earlier southern Italian model, that of Mary
holding Christ in the crypt of Sante Marina and Cristina in Carpignano (eleventh century).66
Moreover, Saints James the Greater and John the Baptist find their closest stylistic counterparts
in southern Italian examples,67 while a southern Italian artist is proffered for Saints Stephen
and Vincent.68 Judging from their style and iconography, the portraits of Saints Leonard and
Blasius are most probably the work of a southern Italian painter.
To my mind, the starring role given to Cyprus by Pace and scholars who endorse
his views is overestimated. I believe it is more likely that Cyprus, like Apulia and the Holy
Land, participated in an artistic commonwealth ,69 Pertinent to the discussion is the lineup
of individual saints painted in Lebanese and Syrian churches who stand under arcades. A
similar grouping is repeated in almost identical manner in Amiun, Kafr Qahel, Hamatura,
Mart Shmuni, Bahdeidat, Beirut, Lebanon, and Qara in Syria (Figs. 14, 15). It has been
argued persuasively that an analogous arrangement is not to be found among the Sinaitic
icons or in the religious painting of Cappadocia, Cyprus, Palestine, or Egypt. A main fea-
ture of these frescoes is an interlacing hexagonal pattern bordering the arches' cornices,
which is best seen in Bahdeidat. Showing up abundantly in the Lebanese churches, it
permits us to deduce the presence of close links between different painters, or even a work-
shop.70 What is startling is the identical interlacing hexagon that appears on the arches
crowning the images of the Virgin and Christ at Moutoullas (Fig. 16). 71 Should we assume
the work of Lebanese/Syrian artists in this case? A feature that points to such a conclusion
is the portrait of Saint Paul in the church of the Panagia, Moutoullas, who blesses in the
Syrian manner (Fig. 17). 72 This pattern, in tandem with the interlacing hexagonal motif,
15 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
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18 Saints Peter, Lazarus, James, and Basil, 13th
century, mural. Museo Pomarici Santomasi, Gravina
(formerly, the rock-cut church of San Vito Vecchio,
Gravina, Italy), north wall of the nave (artwork in the
public domain; photograph by the author, by permis-
sion of the Fondazione Ettore Pomarici Santomasi)
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could be taken as the chief indicator of the presence of Lebanese/Syrian painters on the
island, or at least of the use of Syrian templates by the Moutoullas workshop.73 It is worth
mentioning that during the thirteenth century Eastern Christians migrated to Cyprus in
large numbers and were mostly concentrated in Famagusta.74 It is said that in 1283 alone a
Muslim attack on the Christians in the Qadisha Valley forced eighty thousand Lebanese to
seek refuge in Cyprus.75
As previously stated, the Virgin Blachernitissa at Moutoullas resembles the Madonna
Enthroned in San Vito Vecchio in Gravina (Figs. 10, 19). Do we then need to speak of
knowledge of Cypriot art in Apulia or, rather, surmise that a separate communication was at
play with the Holy Land? In other words, are these similarities symptomatic of independent
contacts that both regions had with the Near East? I would argue that the frescoes of San
Vito Vecchio in Gravina resonate as much with Lebanese art as they do with the paintings
in Moutoullas.76 The row of standing frontal saints beneath arches crowned with interlacing
patterns harks back to the saints in Mar Tadros, Bahdeidat (ca. 1250-70). Certainly, the pat-
terns on the arches and columns are different, but a kindred conception is evident (Figs. 14,
15, 18, 19).
Such iconic figures standing below arcades are unusual and are encountered nei-
ther in the monumental painting of other regions nor in that of Cyprus. At this point,
the images of Saints James and Peter (thirteenth century) in the rock-cut church of San
Giovanni in Monterrone, Matera, Italy, add an interesting slant to the discussion (Fig. 20).
The frontal saints stand beneath arches identical to those of San Vito Vecchio in Gravina,
while their facial features and other ornamental details reveal that they hail from a single
workshop (Figs. 19, 20). 77 This atelier appears to have taken its cue from models in the Holy
1 6 The Art Bulletin September 2017
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19 Saints Nicholas, Bartholomew, and Virgin Mary with
Child, detail showing facial features, late 13th century,
mural. Museo Pomarici Santomasi, Gravina (formerly,
the rock-cut church of San Vito Vecchio, Gravina, Italy),
south wall of the nave (artwork in the public domain;
photograph by the author, by permission of the Fonda-
zione Ettore Pomarici Santomasi)

20 Saints James and Peter, late 13th century, mural.

Rock-cut church of San Giovanni, Monterrone, Matera,
Italy, south end (artwork in the public domain)

Land, as it exploits a host of common characteristics with frescoes in the loca sancta 78 The
physiognomic attributes are rendered in comparable ways: considerably flatter faces with
rough facial features, a thick line used to outline faces, uniform shapes for the ears, a linear
treatment of drapery, and simple haloes with (or without) a row of pearls on their contour.
Hence, it seems that these connections do not necessarily presuppose a Cypriot link, as such
syntheses were unknown on the island.79
An additional shared feature between Apulia and the Holy Land was the custom of
portraying Christ instead of the Virgin Mary in the central apse - a common practice across
the Byzantine world. Apulia boasts depictions of Theophanic visions of God as Pantokrator
or the Ancient of Days, the Ascension, the Transfiguration, and the Trinity. Furthermore,
the Deesis on the conch of the apse is recurrent, especially in the province of Taranto,
most prevalently as the Trimorphon (Christ Pantokrator, the Virgin Mary, and John the

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 Baptist).80 The same tradition was also current in the Holy Land; the Anastasis is seen on
the central conch of Abu Gosh and the Deesis on the north.81 In Lebanon, apocalyptic
visions of the Enthroned Christ in a mandorla with cherubim, seraphim, and the beasts of
the Apocalypse and flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist in supplication survive in
many churches (Mar Mitrin Hamatura, Raskida, Kafr Shleiman, Bahdeidat, and others).82
Such examples in Cyprus, in contrast with the Holy Land and Apulia, are scarce and belong
to the eleventh or early twelfth century, while the most recurrent figure in the apse is the
Virgin Mary - with or without the Child.83 The apocalyptic visions are rooted in Early
Christian iconographie tradition and are bound up with the archaic (Palestinian) Liturgy of
Saint James.84 Apulia, along with Campania and Calabria, cherished the Constantinopolitan
tradition but with several deviations. Some of these incorporated the Palestinian Liturgy of
Saint James partially, thus explaining why some apocalyptic visions in the apse of certain
rock-cut churches occur in southern Italy.85
To sum up, it has been shown that the aesthetic and cultural interchange between
Apulia, Cyprus, and the Holy Land is a tangled web that demands further in-depth schol-
arship. Marina Falla Castelfranchi probes two Apulian crypts, that of San Biagio near San
Vito dei Normanni (1196) and Santa Maria degli Angeli near Poggiardo (ca. 1200), which,
in her view, invite a reassessment of the triangular nexus of Holy Land-Cyprus-Apulia, 8f
as, crucially, these two churches chronologically precede their Cypriot counterparts. Using
this particular case as a platform to open up the debate, it leads us to ponder the role that
Apulia assumed in other, similar exchanges. Did it follow Cypriot models, or the reverse?
Or did Apulia and Cyprus develop these parallel aesthetics simultaneously but indepen-
dently via the Holy Land?87 Falla Castelfranchi envisages two forms of communication. The
first encompasses a group of duecento icons and involves early thirteenth-century contacts
between Cyprus and Apulia, excluding the Holy Land. The second includes the interplay
of Apulia and the Holy Land, for their relation is constant, dating back to the twelfth cen-
tury, as demonstrated by sculptural and architectural remnants. Falla Castelfranchi surmises
that the stylistic language of San Biagio and Santa Maria in Poggiardo, anticipating thir-
teenth-century Cypriot frescoes, may find its antecedents in the monumental painting of
Syria (Figs. 21, 22). 88 In this case, the formal stylistic lines do not always coincide, but they
exhibit a common pictorial language with a repertory of flat and large faces, of serene and
aloof physiognomies, and of matching colors. From this vantage point, Cyprus and Apulia
seem to occupy not a determinant role but, rather, a passive one, appropriating an artistic
language that was not theirs.89
We cannot overstress the dialogical or even plurilogical nature of cultural negotia-
tions, no matter how equal (or not) these may have been. Besides, older models of accul-
turation have long been abandoned by cultural critics in favor of more interactive modes
of exchange variously termed "biculturation,"90 "transculturation,"91 "interculturalism,"92
and "hybridity,"93 to mention but a few. Any discussion seeking to trace primordial artis-
tic models is not only precarious but also futile. The arts in all these regions were in flux
and could simultaneously supply as well as emulate handy cultural capital. The fact that
local art in Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon was at once lender and recipient should be taken
for granted.

APULIA AND CYPRUS: TOWARD A HISTORICITY OF CONTACTS

From the foregoing, it has become clear that Cyprus was not the l
"Crusader art" in Apulia. Yet the existence of images that resonate
is unquestionable and could have been duly instigated by the passag

18 The Art Bulletin September 2017

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21 Saint John the Baptist , detail showing the saint's
facial features, ca. 1200, mural. Museo degli Affreschi
Bizantini, Piazza Episcopo (formerly, the rock-cut
church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Poggiardo, Italy),
northeastern wall of the nave (artwork in the public
domain; photograph by Marcello Gaballo, provided by
Archivio Fondazione Terra d'Otranto)
22 Saint John the Baptist, late 12th century, mural.
Church of Mar Sarkis (Saint Sergius), Qara, Horns,
Syria, north wall (artwork in the public domain; photo-
graph by Mat Immerzeel, Paul van Moorsel Centre, VU
University Amsterdam)
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Cypriot-related personages through the Italian peninsula. The witnesses are worth
mentioning. In the first two decades of the thirteenth century, a female community
from the monastery of Saint Mary and All Saints in Acre had settled in Matera under
the auspices of Archbishop Andrea, who himself was likely in the Holy Land in about
I200. In order to accommodate the needs of the new sorority, the church of Santa Maria
la Nova (later San Giovanni) and the coenobium were built about 1233. 94 This would
not have been feasible without the generous donations made by the queen of Cyprus,
Alice of Champagne, the wife of King Hugh I (r. 1205-18), who is referred to as the
founder of their sisterhood.95 The female community was also favored by Pope Gregory
IX (r. 1227-41), who, through three papal bulls, encouraged local people to support the
newly founded community. He also reaffirmed their holdings within and outside Apulia.96
More specifically, in an apostolic letter dated December 30, 1237, Gregory IX records that
the nuns owned a church dedicated to Saint Mary of Egypt in Paphos, which included
a cistern and a garden, among others.97 He mentions the nuns had obtained it with the
assistance of the queen of Cyprus sometime before 1237. 98 The nuns also held properties in
Lydda near the city of Ramla and many houses and tracts of land between Jaffa, Nicosia,
Sidone, and Tripoli; the latter was bestowed on them by Alice s son, King Henry I
(r. 1218-53).99 In addition, the churches of Saint Nicholas in Nicosia, Santa Maria la Nova
in Matera, Santa Maria di Balneolo between Gravina and Matera, and Santissima Trinità
in Brindisi were in their possession.100 The community would later become a member of
the Order of Santa Maria di Valleverde, which also possessed worship spaces in Messina
and Apulia. In Barletta the nuns had started building a church dedicated to Saint Mary,
and in Taranto they owned a church of the Holy Cross. In Messina they had a monastery
of Sant'Anna, while they benefited from the charities of the laity in Barletta, Brindisi,
and Taranto.101
19 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
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23 Rinaldo da Taranto?, Madonna della Bruna, ca.
1270-1300, mural. Cathedral of the Madonna della
Bruna, Matera, Italy, north end of the aisle (artwork in
the public domain)
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A number of stylistic and thematic linkages between the church of Santissima
Trinità in Brindisi and Cypriot images have been associated with the aforementioned
Augustinián nuns and owners of the church formerly residing in Acre.102 Moreover, it
has been posited that in the female monasteries of Matera, Brindisi, Barletta, Taranto,
and Sicily, dependencies of the Order of Santa Maria di Valleverde, the Marian cult
was furnished with icons of the Virgin that must have been brought from Palestine or
Cyprus, lhe cult and iconographie models of saints (such as Mary Magdalene and Mary
of Egypt), along with reliquaries and liturgical objects, must have equally been imported
from those regions.103 The face of Saint Nicholas in the crypt of Santissima Trinità
strongly resembles the one in the famous icon of the saint from Kakopetria, Cyprus
(Figs. 7, 8). 104 If we take a closer look at the pair of images, we might entertain the idea
that the painter in Brindisi was aware of the Cypriot icon, or that both painters availed
themselves of an identical prototype. The shape of the head, the curved wrinkles on a
bulbous forehead, and the bird-shaped lines above the eyes are common devices in both
paintings. Furthermore, the slender nose, the shape of the nostrils, the gaze, and even
the drawing of the beard, in the middle of which a roundel is formed, are matching; the
rendering of the ears is equally comparable. The
Cypriot icon, however, is of finer quality and more
attentive to detail.105
The wall paintings in San Vito Vecchio
in Gravina may have a similar background. Since
Gravina was home to a number of churches that
belonged to the exiled female community from
Acre, the frescoes might be thought to reflect
historical events. There is a strong likelihood that
these nuns who came to Apulia brought with
them their ecclesiastical artifacts. In light of these
historical findings, we can now add that the afore-
mentioned stylistic and iconographie correspon-
dences present in Bahdeidat, Lebanon, are not
fortuitous (Figs. 18, 19, 14, 15). 106 The frescoes at
Gravina have been ascribed to Rinaldo da Taranto,
or to an artist close to him, who had supposedly
visited Palestine and the Holy Land and ended
up working in the court of Anjou in Naples.107
Would it be farfetched to assume that the sister-
hood sought a local painter whom they might have
met in the Holy Land, or whose ventures they had
heard about?
Rinaldo has also been credited with the well-known Madonna della Bruna in
the cathedral of Matera, although not all scholars embraced this assumption (Fig. 23). 108
Whoever the painter, his work raises the possibility that he might have had Cypriot tem-
plates at his disposal.109 A mural icon echoing the Apulian Madonna survives in the church
of Saint Nicholas in Kakopetria, Cyprus (Fig. 24). It is a Virgin Hodegetria painted on the
northeastern pillar of the narthex, and its suggested date ranges from the early twelfth to the
late fourteenth century, although I am inclined to accept a late twelfth-century date.110 The
Madonna della Bruna is also subject to some controversy regarding its dating, which extends
from 1270 to about 1300.111
20 The Art Bulletin September 2017
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24 Virgin Hodegetria, late 12th century, mural. Church
of Saint Nicholas tes Steges, Kakopetria, Cyprus,
northeastern pillar of the narthex (artwork in the public
domain; photograph by the author, by permission of
the Holy Bishopric of Morfou)
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In spite of the hundred-year span between the Madonna della Bruna and the one
we see in Kakopetria, it is possible that the painter of the former was familiar with an image
similar to the latter. The Apulian icon was not originally a bust; like the Cypriot example, it
depicted the entire figure.112 Both images of Mary feature a sensual face with big, expressive,
almond-shaped eyes and fleshy lips. Both also exhibit a curved but elegant nose. They wear
a dark red maphorion and a blue head cover (, kekriphalos ), and their haloes are pearl-rimmed.
Nevertheless, there are quite a few differences. For instance, in the Cypriot painting, the
Child is dressed in a golden cloak that does not cover his back and a white tunic with sus-
penders ornamented with floral motifs and crosses, while in Matera he wears a solid-color
cloak and tunic. In the Cypriot fresco, the Virgin Mary is more linear, with marked shadows
emphasizing the eyes, mouth, and chin, while the Madonna della Bruna has a gentler mien,
eschewing any linearity and embracing a more Gothic temperament. A striking detail that
has so far gone unnoticed is the Syrian gesture of blessing that the Kakopetria Child adopts.
This detail implicates the involvement of a Syrian painter in its creation (as in the case of
Moutoullas), or at least the use of model books from the Near East. Therefore, it seems
reasonable to suggest that both images might have been
derived from a common prototype that has not survived.
The likelihood that painters working in southern
Italy experienced the visual culture in the Holy Land is
strong. It is to be expected that painters who traveled
to the East, such as Paolo from Otranto or Rinaldo da
Taranto, would return with paintings and drawings
from those regions.113 The fact that this art would have
originated from that legendary part of the world would
have made it invaluable and endowed it with canonical
status. Even Gothicizing painters, who passed from the
maniera greca to more fluid forms, would have been fully
abreast of these developments from the East. The con-
gruities between the head of Saint John the Baptist in
the "Acre Triptych" (ca. 1256-60) and the head of Saint
Dominic in the panel from San Domenico Maggiore
in Naples (ca. 1280-85) are telling (Figs. 25, 26).114 The
panel in Naples is considered the work of a Neapolitan
painter who was influenced by Catalan art, or the work
of a Catalan painter working in Naples. The image of
Saint Dominic is groundbreaking, as it escapes from the
"mentalità bizantineggiante" and accentuates intense
expression, intimating a more naturalistic style with flow-
ing forms.115 Surely, the execution of the Italian panel is
subtler and gentler, whereas the Sinai icon is more ascetic
and austere. Notwithstanding that the panel from San
Domenico Maggiore was created a couple of decades later, I would not rule out the possi-
bility that the Neapolitan painter was aware of works similar to the "Acre Triptych," or even
of the Sinaitic triptych itself. A further feature that associates John the Baptist of the "Acre
Triptych" with southern Italian painting is his halo with the relief strip of lozenges. Such a
grid is attested to in the church of San Sebastiano in Barletta. There, Saint Sebastian wears
a halo with lozenges filled with color emulating precious stones and outlined with pearls
(ca. mid-thirteenth century).116
21 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
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/';-=09 )(8* =-0/']

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25 Standing Saint John the Baptist, right wing of the
Acre Triptych (closed), detail showing the upper part
of the saint, ca. 1256-60, tempera and gold and
silver on wood, 21Vs x 8V4 in. (53.8 x 21 cm). Holy
Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (artwork in
the public domain; photograph by permission of Saint
Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, provided by Sinai icon
Archive, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton
University)
26 Standing Saint Dominic, detail showing the face
of the saint, ca. 1280-85, tempera and gold on
wood, 743/a x 243/a in. (190 x 63 cm). Church of San
Domenico Maggiore, Naples (artwork in the public
domain; photograph by permission of the Soprin-
tendenza Belle Arti e Paesaggio per il Comune e la
Provincia di Napoli)
27 Embracing Couple, 1314-15, mural. Rock-cut
church of San Michele Arcangelo, in Masseria Li
Monaci, Copertino, Lecce, Italy, ceiling before the left
apse (artwork in the public domain; photograph by
Linda Safran)
28 Married Couple, 14th century, glazed ware with
brown and green sgraffito, 3V2 x 6V4 in. (8.8 x 16 cm).
Piérides Foundation, Larnaca (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by the Piérides Museum-
Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation)
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But is there a tale of parallel aesthetics, as suggested? I have argued that the case of
Apulia and Cyprus was indeed one of vitae p aralie lae, with occasional tangential encounters
empowered by historical contingencies. This kinship was certainly not confined to religious
art, as there are crosscurrents in secular subjects, such as the theme of the married couple.
In the church of San Michele Arcangelo in the Masseria Li Monaci, near Copertino, Lecce
(1314-15), an embracing couple amid stars and flowers is depicted on the ceiling (Fig. 27).
It has been wrongly identified as the "soldier Souré and his wife," who are named in an
inscription situated in a different part of the church.117 In truth, these are subjects inspired
by representations of courtly love in France as seen in artifacts of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries.
Interestingly enough, this couple at Li Monaci calls to mind the ceramic glazed pro-
duction of Cyprus, especially the celebrated married couples made in Cypriot ceramic work-
shops (Fig. 28). The lovers there are incised against a background of flowers and stars.118 We
should note in this respect that chivalric subjects such as, for example, heraldic designs, knights
with swords, and ladies of the court also occurred frequently in the glazed ceramics of the
Crusader castle of Atlit as well as in the thirteenth-century pottery of Saint Symeon in Antioch
and the proto-majolica of southern Italy.119 Despite the proximity of Saint Symeon, southern
Italy and Cyprus were in fact the main exporters of glazed pottery to the Crusader states.120
These correspondences, along with numerous others discussed above, intimate the kindred aes-
thetics of Apulia, Cyprus, and the Holy Land and reconstruct, to a degree, the complexity of
cultural exchanges emanating from the artistic commonwealth of the Mediterranean.
ANTHI ANDRONIKOU has bachelor of arts (archaeology) and masters degrees, (Byzantine art) from Athens, and
master s and doctorate degrees (medieval art) from St. Andrews, all hilly funded. She has received numerous honors,
including the Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard) One-Month Award, BSR Award, and early-career grant "Art of the Crusades"
(SOAS) [School of Art History, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9AL, UK, aa674@st-andrews.ac.uk] .
NOTES 3. Ibid., 169, fig. 183. For a brief discussion of the icon
with bibliography, see Doula Mouriki, "Thirteenth-
This study would not have been successfully completed
Century Icon Painting in Cyprus," Griffon , n.s., 1-2
without the moral, material, and financial (1985-86):
support of9-112, at 37, 71; and Jaroslav Folda, Crusade
the British School at Rome. The core of my
in research
the Holy was
Land: From the Third Crusade to the Fall of A
undertaken in the fall of 2013, when, as an 1187-1291
awardee at(New
the York: Cambridge University Press, 200
BSR, I was given the opportunity to conduct research
336-37. in
Regarding the first icon, the Soterious identify
Rome and make relevant fieldwork trips to Apulia.saint
empress My with Saint Euphemia, but Kurt Weitzma
special thanks go to the director, Professor whom I follow, links the same saint to Saint Catherine
Christopher
Smith. I am greatly indebted to the anonymous read-
Soteriou and Soteriou, Eucóveç Ttjç Movrjç Zívá, 169
ers for The Art Bulletin for their insightfulfigs.
comments,
183, 184; Weitzmann, "Icon Painting in the Crusa
as well as to Doris Behrens-Abouseif and Christopher
Kingdom," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 20 (1966): 49-83,
Schabel for their thoughtful suggestions. I am grateful
70-71, 73, figs. 46, 50; and Michele D'Elia, "Per la pit
to the editorial staff of The Art Bulletin, particularly
del Duecento in Puglia e Basilicata: Ipotesi e proposte
Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Lory Frankel, and civiltà
Antiche Anna Lucane: Atti del convegno di studi di arc
Juliar, for their support throughout. Many logia,
thanks are dell'arte e del folklore, Oppido Lucano; 9-8
storia
also due to Erica Cruikshank Dodd, Mat Immerzeel,
1970, ed. Pietro Borraro (Galatina: Congedo Editore,
Linda Safran, Gaetano Curzi, and Marcello151-68,
Gaballo,
at who
162-63, fig. 10.
have generously provided me with photographs from
4. Soteriou and Soteriou, Eucóveç vrjç Movrjç Zívá, 1
their archives.
70, figs. 183, 184. Their suggestion was endorsed by Ja
Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.
Folda in one of his early publications. Folda, Crusader
i. Dimitris Kalokyris, floípcuTáyyeç [Parasangs],Manuscript
vol. 1, Illumination at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1279- 129
Ovo/jamucóv [Collection of names] (Athens: Agra, 2014), 85.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 118.
2. Georgios Soteriou and Maria Soteriou, Eucóveç
5. The vrjç
Soterious opted for a Cypriot painter, while
Movrjç Zívá [Icons of Mount Sinai], 2 vols., Collectionsupported
Weitzmann de a southern Italian artist for the
l'Institut Français d'Athènes 102 (Athens: Institut
icons. Français
See Soteriou and Soteriou, Eucóveç vrjç Movrj
d'Athènes, 1956-58). Zívá, 170; Weitzmann, "Icon Painting"; and Valentin
23 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Pace, "L'analisi stilistica' come metodologia storica:
Possibilità e limiti," in Artistes, artisans et production
artistique au Moyen-Age: Colbque international, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Rennes
II-Haute-Bretagne, 2-6 mai 1983, vol. 3, Fabrication et
consommation de l'oeuvre, ed. Xavier Barrai i Altet (Paris:
Picard, 1990), 513-23, at 514-15. Also consult the studies by
Pace as in n. 6 below.
6. See the following selected references by Valentino Pace:
"La pittura delle origini in Puglia (secc. IX-XIV)," in
La Puglia fira Bisanzio e l'occidente , ed. Pina Belli D'Elia,
Maria Stella Calò Mariani et al. (Milan: Electa Editrice,
1980), 317-400; "Icone di Puglia, della Terra Santa e di
Cipro: Appunti preliminari per un'indagine sulla ricezione
bizantina nell'Italia meridionale duecentesca," in II medio
oriente e l'occidente nell'arte del XIII secolo: Atti del XXIV
Congresso internazionale di storia dell'arte, ed. Hans Belting,
Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art 2 (Bologna:
Clueb Editrice, 1982), 181-91; "Italy and the Holy Land:
Import-Export, 2; The Case of Apulia," in Crusader Art
in the Twelfth Century , ed. Jaroslav Folda, British School
of Archaeology in Jerusalem, B.A.R. International Series
152 (Oxford: B.A.R., 1982), 245-65; "Presenze e influ-
enze cipriote nella pittura duecentesca italiana," Corso di
Cultura sull'Arte Ravennate e Bizantina 32 (1985): 259-98;
"Circolazione e ricezione delle icone bizantine: I casi di
Andria, Matera e Damasco," in Studi in onore di Michele
D'Elia: Archeologia, arte, restauro e tutela archivistica , ed.
Clara Gelao (Matera: R & R Editrice, 1996), 157-65; and
"Il Mediterraneo e la Puglia: Circolazione di modelli e di
maestranze," in Andar per mare: Puglia e Mediterraneo tra
mito e storia , ed. Raffaella Cassano, Rosa Lorusso Romito,
and Marisa Milella, exh. cat. (Bari: Mario Adda Editore,
1998), 287-300.
7. Earlier than Weitzmann, Georgios and Maria Soteriou
ascribed these panels to an artist from Cyprus. Soteriou
and Soteriou, Eucóveç xqç Movrjç Zívá, 151, fig. 187;
Weitzmann, "Icon Painting," 69-74; idem, "Annotation
(1980): Annotations to XII," in Studies in the Arts of
Sinai: Essays by Kurt Weitzmann (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1982), 434-36, at 435 (annotation to
p. 72). Weitzmann's group of the "Master of the Knights
Templars" was reexamined by Pace, "Italy and the Holy
Land: Import-Export, 2," 247-51, who compared it with
works in Apulia and concluded that more direct links
between Crusader icons and Apulia are still to be found.
8. Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, 341 and n. 831,
345, suggested that the group should be called "Workshop
of the Soldier Saints." For a critical approach toward
Weitzmann's Venetian-oriented taxonomies, see Valentino
Pace, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export, 1;
The Case of Venice," in The Meeting of Two Worlds:
Cultural Exchange between East and West during the
Period of the Crusades, ed. Vladimir P. Goss, Studies in
Medieval Culture 21 (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute
Publications, 1986), 331-45, figs. 61-70.
9. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," 55, 71.
10. D'Elia, "Per la pittura del Duecento in Puglia," 162-64; and
Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," 13-14» 32-33.
ii. See Lucy-Anne Hunt, A Woman s Prayer to St Sergios
in Latin Syria: Interpreting a Thirteenth-Century Icon
at Mount Sinai," Byzantine Modern and Greek Studies 15
(1991): 96-145; Jaroslav Folda, "The Saint Marina Icon:
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Maniera Cypria, Lingua Franca, or Crusader Art?," in Four
Icons in the Menil Collection, ed. Bertrand Davezac, Menil
Collection Monographs 1 (Houston: Menil Foundation,
1992), 106-33; Nada Hélou, "À propos d'une école syro-
libanaise d'icônes au XHIe siècle," Eastern Christian Art
in Its Late Antique and Islamic Contexts 3 (2006): 53-72,
at 67-70; Erica Cruikshank Dodd, Medieval Painting in
the Lebanon, Sprachen und Kulturen des Chrisdichen
Orients 8 (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2004), 94-95;
Mat Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles: Medieval Christian Art
in Syria and Lebanon, Orientaba Lovaniensia Analecta
184 (Louvain: Peeters, 2009), 91-92; and Bas Snelders and
Mat Immerzeel, "From Cyprus to Syria and Back Again:
Artistic Interaction in the Medieval Levant," Eastern
Christian Art in Its Late Antique and Islamic Contexts 9
(2012-13): 7 6-106, at 97-103.
12. The frescoes of Mar Fauqa conjure up late Comnenian
Cypriot wall paintings (for example, Hermitage of Saint
Neophytos in Paphos, 1183, and Panagia tou Arakou in
Lagoudera, 1192). See Dodd, Medieval Painting in the
Lebanon, 91-95; and Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles, 54, 91-92.
13. Among other panels, the icons of the Virgin Hodegetria
(obverse) and Saints Sergius and Bacchus (reverse), the
Virgin Blachernitissa, the mounted Saint Sergius with
a female supplicant, an iconostasis beam with a Deesis
between Saints Peter and Paul, the four Evangelists,
and Saints George and Procopius are included in Mat
Immerzeel and Nada Hélou's "Collective." Immerzeel
and Hélou, "Icon Painting in the County of Tripoli,"
in Interactions: Artistic Interchange between the Eastern
and Western Worlds in the Medieval Period, ed. Colum
Hourihane, Index of Christian Art Occasional Papers 9
(Princeton: Index of Christian Art, Princeton University;
University Park: Penn State University Press, 2007), 67-83,
at 73-76, 82; and Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles, 125-42, 171.
14. In addition to the church of Mar Tadros in Bahdeidat,
this artist appears to have worked in the churches of Mar
Charbel in Macad (1240s) and in that of Mar Saba in
Eddé al-Batrun (1261-62). See Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles ,
104-15, particularly 104-5, m» I7I-
15. For an insightful commentary on those problematic
attributions, see Pace, "L'analisi stilistica,'" 516-19; and
Dimitra Kotoula, '"Maniera Cypria' and Thirteenth-
Century Icon Production on the Island of Cyprus: A
Critical Approach," Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 28 involving Cyprus, Apulia, and the Holy Land constitute
(2004): 89-100, at 90-91.
16. Pace, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export, 2,"
248-49.
1 7. Weitzmann, "Icon Painting," 80; and idem, "The
Icons of the Period of the Crusades," in The Icon, ed. Kurt
Weitzmann, Gaiané Alibegasvili et al. (London: Evans
Brothers, 1982), 201-35, at 204, 220. Weitzmann's theory
of a pilgrim from Paris was embraced by other scholars,
including Robin Cormack and Stavros Mihalarias, "A
Crusader Painting of St George: 'Maniera Greca' or 'Lingua
Franca'?," Burlington Magazine 126 (1984): 132-39, 141, at
134, fig. 5; Lucy-Anne Hunt, "A Woman's Prayer," 106,
fig. 12; and Michele Bacci, "Due tavole della Vergine nella
Toscana occidentale del primo Duecento," Annali della
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 4th ser., 2 (1997): 1-58, at
30. Jaroslav Folda also favors a Greek patronymic surname
and he righdy mentions the donor as George Parisis, but he
does not provide any examples. Folda, entry to cat. no. 231,
24 The Art Bulletin September 2017
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
in Byzantium: Faith and Power ( 1261-1$ 57), ed. Helen. C.
Evans, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art;
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 376; and idem,
Crusader Art in the Holy Land, 139-40, 339 (where he accepts
the theory of "George from Paris"), fig. 74. It should be
noted that the name Parisis (JJapíarjç) is not included in the
Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW), which cov-
ers names from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, accessed
October 21, 2014, http://db.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/jsp/index.jsp.
18. Pace, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export, 2,"
254nio, has indeed dismissed the proposal for a French
origin by indicating that had the word designated
origin, it would have been "ex tod ITapiaioo," not "tod
rjapiaioD." He suggested the genitive of the Greek name
"Paris." Yet the genitive of the name 'Tlápiç" is not "tou
Parisiou," but "tod flápiôoç."
19. Enrico Pispisa, "Coscienza familiare ed egemonia
urbana: Milites, meliores e populares a Messina fra XII e
XIV secolo," Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome: Moyen-
Age, Temps Modernes no (1998): 93-102, at 100.
20. Acta Honorii III (1216-1227) et Gregorii IX (1227-1241)
e registris vaticanis aliisque fontibus collegit, ed. Aloysius L.
Tàutu, Pontificia Commissio ad Redigendum Codicem
Iuris Canonici Orientalis, Fontes 3 (Vatican City: Typis
Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950), 3:48, no. 27; and Mario
Scaduto, Il monachesimo basiliano nella Sicilia medievale
(Rome: Edizioni di "Storia e Letteratura," 1947), 429-30.
21. Vera von Falkenhausen, "The Greek Presence in
Norman Sicily: The Contribution of Archival Material
in Greek," in The Society of Norman Italy , ed. Graham A.
Loud and Alex Metcalfe, Medieval Mediterranean People:
Economies and Cultures, 400-1500, 38 (Leiden: Brill,
2002), 253-87, at 282.
22. Annemarie Weyl Carr, "Byzantines and Italians on
Cyprus: Images from Art," in "Symposium on Byzantium
and the Italians, I3th-i5th Centuries (1995)," special issue,
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 49 (1995): 339-57, at 353, 356-57.
23. Although beyond the scope of this study, it should
be mentioned that sculptures have also been examined
as paradigms of artistic exchanges between Apulia and
the Holy Land, celebrated examples being a number of
sculptures in al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem), Barletta,
and Termoli (Molise). Yet crosscurrents in sculpture
a field calling for future research. Portable panels like
the Madonna di Andria and the Madonna della Madia
in Monopoli, as well as frescoes such as those in Santa
Maria delle Cerrate, San Salvatore, and San Mauro in
Gallipoli have also been investigated with a focus on
artistic interchange in the Mediterranean world. For
sculpture, see Fritz Jacobs, Die Kathedrale S. Maria Icona
Vetere in Foggia: Studien zur Architektur und Plastik des
ii -13. Jh. in Süditalien (Hamburg: Selbstverlag, 1968);
Helmut Buschhausen, Die süditalienische Bauplastik im
Königreich Jerusalem von König Wilhelm II. bis Kaiser
Friedrich II, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Denkschriften 108
(Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1978), 295-386; and Pace, "Italy and the
Holy Land: Import-Export, 2," 249-51. For panel painting,
see in short Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 260-71.
For the artistic contacts between Apulia and other regions
of the "Byzantine Ecumene" without the mediation of
the Holy Land, see idem, "La transperiferia bizantina
nell'Italia meridionale del XIII secolo: Affreschi in chiese
del Salerno pugliese, della Basilicata e della Calabria," in
Orient et occident méditerranéens au XlIIe siècle: Les pro-
grammes picturaux; Actes du colloque international organisé à
l'École Française d'Athènes les 2-4 avril 2009 , ed. Jean-Pierre
Caillet and Fabienne Joubert (Paris: Picard, 2012), 215-34,
esp. 226.
24. These similarities are generic and confined to the
posture of the saints and their horse. Their attire as well as
their facial details are different. Pace, "Presenze e influenze
cipriote," 278. For the warrior saint in Moutoullas, see
Doula Mouriki, "The Wall Paintings of the Church of the
Panagia at Moutoullas, Cyprus," in Byzanz und der Westen:
Studien zur Kunst des Europäischen Mittelalters (Fetschrifi
fur O. D emus), ed. Irmgard Hutter (Vienna: Verlag der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1984),
171-213, at 193-94, figs. 20, 21; and Stylianos Perdikis
and Diomedes Myrianthefs, O vaóç rrjç Ilavayíaç crxov
MovxovXká, Oôrjyoí BvÇavxivcòv Mvrjjucícov xrjç Kvixpov
[The Church of the Holy Virgin in Moutoullas, Guides
to the Byzantine monuments of Cyprus] (Nicosia: Bank
of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 2009), 44. For Saint
Theodore in Faggiano, consult Alba Medea, Gli affreschi
delle cripte eremitiche pugliesi , voi. 1 (Rome: Collezione
Meridionale Editrice, 1939), 182-88; Michele D'Elia,
Mostra dell'arte in Puglia dal tardo antico al rococò , exh. cat.
(Rome: Istituto Grafico Tiberino di S. De Luca, 1964),
38, fig. 42; and Linda Safran, The Medieval Salento: Art
and Identity in Southern Italy (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 275, no. 45.
25. Hunt, "A Woman's Prayer," 108, fig. 4; Dodd, Medieval
Painting in the Lebanon, 73, 342, pls. LXI, LXXXV; Mat
Immerzeel, "Holy Horsemen and Crusader Banners:
Equestrian Saints in Wall Paintings in Lebanon and
Syria," Eastern Christian Art 1 (2004): 29-60, at 34, pl.
8. The manus dei is also found in Qara (Syria). See Jules
Leroy, "Découvertes de peintures chrétiennes en Syrie,"
Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 25 (1975): 95-113,
at pl. 1; Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles , 69, 102, 109, pls.
39, 65, 82. In an important study, Annemarie Weyl Carr
comments on the affinity between Cypriot and Syrian
painting with regard to this detail, but she overlooks the
southern Italian connection. See Carr, "Iconography and
Identity: Syrian Elements in the Art of Crusader Cyprus,"
in Religious Origins of Nations? The Christian Communities
of the Middle East, ed. Bas ter Haar Romeny (Leiden: Brill,
2010), 127-51, at 137.
26. For the frescoes in Antiphonites, see Andreas
Stylianou and Judith Stylianou, The Painted Churches
of Cyprus: Treasures of Byzantine Art (Nicosia: A. G.
Leventis Foundation, 1985), 470-75, figs. 284-89;
Charalambos Chotzakoglou, "BvÇavxivri apyiicKioviKT)
Kai T8XVT1 GTTļV Kwtpo" [Byzantine architecture and
art in Cyprus], in laxopia xrjç Kvnpov [History of
Cyprus], vol. 3, BvÇavxivrj Kvnpoç [Byzantine Cyprus],
ed. Theodoras Papadopoullos (Nicosia: Archbishop
Makarios III Foundation, 2005), 465-787, at 627-31,
figs. 496-522; and Athanasios Papageorghiou, Christian
Art in the Turkish-Occupied Part of Cyprus (Nicosia: Holy
Archbishopric of Cyprus, 2010), 107-10, 121-22. For
the frescoes in Paphos, see Stylianou and Stylianou, The
Painted Churches of Cyprus, 354-55, figs. 211-14. See also
Athanasios Papageorghiou, lepá MrjzpónoXiç
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[Já(¡)OV. loxopía Kai xtyyr': ipso Xpàvia anó xtjv íâpuorj
tqç [Holy Bishopric of Paphos: 1950 years since its
foundation] (Nicosia: Imprinta, 1996), fig. 78; Maria
Panayotidi, "H Çœypa<|>iKi1 tod 1201) aiœva arqv Rúrcpo
Kai xo 7ipoßX,T1pa xcöv xo7tiKCöv epyaoxqpicov" [The
painting of the 12th century in Cyprus and the problem
of local workshops], in TTpct-KxiKa xov Tpíxov AieOvovç
KvnpoXoyiKov Evveôpíov, AevKcoma, 16-20 AnpiXiov
1996 [Proceedings of the Third International Cyprological
Congress, 16-20 April] , vol. 2, MeoaicoviKÓ Tpqjia
[Medieval section], ed. Athanasios Papageorghiou
(Nicosia: Society for Cypriot Studies, 2001), 411-39,
at 419, figs. 21, 23; and Chotzakoglou, "BuÇavxivf)
apxixacxovucrj Kai xsyvq," 612-19, figs. 465, 466. For the
similarities with Barletta, see Valentino Pace, "Pittura
bizantina nell'Italia meridionale (secoli XI-XIV)," in
I bizantini in Italia, ed. Guglielmo Cavallo, Vera von
Falkenhausen et al. (Milan: Libri Scheiwiller, 1982),
429-94, at 475, fig. 427.
27. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 278. For further
comparisons by the same scholar, see "Italy and the Holy
Land: Import-Export, 2," 248; and "Il Mediterraneo e la
Puglia," 296-300.
28. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 282.
29. Ioannis A. Eliades, "La pittura cipriota e i suoi rap-
porti con l'arte italiana all'epoca delle dominazioni franca
e veneziana (1191-1571)," in Cipro e l'Italia al tempo di
Bisanzio: L'icona grande di San Nicola tis Stégs del XIII
secolo restaurata a Roma, ed. Eliades, exh. cat. (Nicosia:
Museo Bizantino della Fondazione Arcivescovo Makarios
III, 2009), 53-67, at 56.
30. Paul Magdalino, "The Evergetis Fountain in the Early
Thirteenth Century: An Ekphrasis of the Paintings in the
Cupola," in Work and Worship at the Theotokos Evergetis
io$o-i200, ed. Margaret Mullet and Anthony Kirby
(Belfast: Belfast Byzantine Enterprises, 1997), 432-46, esp.
434, 436; and Marina Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monu-
mentale bizantina in Puglia (Milan: Electa, 1991), iii. For
the church of San Nicola in Celsorizzo, see Michel Berger
and André Jacob, "Un nouveau monument byzantin de
Terre d'Otrante: La chapelle Saint-Nicolas de Celsorizzo,
près d'Acquarica del Capo, et ses fresques (an. 1283),"
Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neollenici 27 (1991): 211-57, esp.
214-20, 241-42, 251; and Maria Stella Calò Mariani, "Echi
d'Oltremare in Terra d'Otranto: Imprese pittoriche e com-
mittenza feudale fra XIII e XIV secolo," in II cammino di
Gerusalemme: Atti del II convegno internazionale di studio,
Bari-Brindisi-Trani, 18-22 maggio 1999, ed. Calò Mariani,
Rotte mediterranee della cultura 2 (Bari: Mario Adda
Editore, 2002), 235-74, at 238, fig. 2.
31. Safrans discussion of Salentine identity, The Medieval
Salento , 3-5, is extremely stimulating.
32. Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics ,
trans. Roy Harris (London: Duckworth, 1983), 65-70, esp.
67-69; and Jonathan Culler, Saussure (London: Fontana
Press, 1985), 18-23.
33. For this Italian name of the saint (from the word
venerdì), consult George Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints
in Central and South Italian Schools of Painting, vol. 2
(Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1986), 847-49,
no. 282; and Sophia Kalopissi- Verti, "The Murals of
the Narthex: The Paintings of the Late Thirteenth and
25 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Fourteenth Centuries," in Asinou across Time: Studies in
the Architecture and Murals of the Panagia Phorbiotissa,
Cyprus, ed. Annemarie Weyl Carr and Andreas Nicolaïdès,
Dumbarton Oaks Studies 43 (Washington, DC:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection;
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 115-208,
at 173. The saint is inscribed as "Venera" in the mosaics
of Monreale, Sicily (twelfth century). Otto Demus, The
Mosaics of Norman Sicily (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1949), 118, 329.
34. Saint Paraskevi in Cyprus is not the actual Early
Christian martyr but the personification of the day of
Good Friday. The earliest image of her in Cyprus is that in
Kalopanagiotes, but her likeness survives in post-Byzantine
years, too. More information is provided by Susan
Hatfield Young, "Byzantine Painting in Cyprus during
the Early Lusignan Period" (PhD diss., Pennsylvania State
University, 1983), 201-3. See also Doula Mouriki, "The
Cult of Cypriot Saints in Medieval Cyprus as Attested by
Church Decorations and Icon Painting," in "The Sweet
Land of Cyprus": Papers Given at the Twenty-Fifth Jubilee
Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham,
March 1991, ed. Anthony A. M. Bryer and George S.
Georghallides (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 1993),
237-77, at 253-54; and Carolyn L. Connor, "Female
Saints in Church Decoration of the Troodos Mountains
in Cyprus," in Medieval Cyprus: Studies in Art, Architecture
and History in Memory of Doula Mouriki, ed. Nancy
Patterson-Ševčenko and Christopher Moss (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1999), 211-40, at 219.
35. For the image of Sancta Parasceve in Mottola, see
Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, Civiltà rupestre in terra jónica
(Milan: C. Bestetti, 1970), 183, pl. 14; Nino Lavermicocca,
"Il programma decorativo del santuario rupestre di San
Nicola di Mottola," in II passaggio dal dominio bizantino
allo stato normanno nell'Italia meridionale: Atti del secondo
convegno internazionale di studi, Taranto-Mottola, 31 ottobre-
4 novembre 1973, ed. Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, Convegni
di studio sulla civiltà rupestre medioevale nel Mezzogiorno
d'Italia 2 (Taranto: Amministrazione Provinciale,
1977), 291-337, at 330, pl. LXXXVI, fig. 24; and Franco
Dell'Aquila and Aldo Messina, eds., Le chiese rupestri di
Puglia e Basilicata (Bari: Mario Adda Editore, 1998), 36. For
the likeness of Saint Marina in Kalopanagiotes, see Young,
"Byzantine Painting in Cyprus," 205-6.
36. In Apulia, Saint Marina is in fact known as Santa
Margherita and is usually depicted wearing imperial gar-
ments and a crown. Raffaela Tortorelli, "Aree cultuali e cicli
agiografici della civiltà rupestre: I casi di Santa Margherita
e San Nicola di Mottola" (PhD diss., Università degli Studi
di Roma "Tor Vergata," 2008), 45-54.
37. Culler, Saussure, 19.
38. Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, ni; and
Tortorelli, "Aree cultuali e cicli agiografici," 39-40.
39. It should be stressed, however, that not all churches
were rock-cut in Apulia. San Nicola in Celsorizzo was an
aboveground building. Conventional churches also existed:
San Pietro in Otranto, Santa Maria in Anglona, near
Matera, and so on.
40. See for instance Charles Diehl, L'art byzantin dans
l'Italie méridionale (Paris: Librairie de l'Art, 1894), 25-28;
and Medea, Gli affreschi delle cripte, 1:22-25, 28.
4i. From the twelfth century on, the Benedictines were an
extremely active order and contributed to the repopulation
of these rock-cut communities. The friars interacted with
clerics, monks, and laity. For the Benedictines in Apulia,
see L'esperienza monastica benedettina e la Puglia: Atti del
convegno di studio organizzato in occasione del XV centenario
della nascita di San Benedetto, Bari-Noci-Lecce-Picciano,
6-10 ottobre ip8o , ed. Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, 2 vols.
(Galatina: Congedo Editore, 1983); Giovanni Vitolo, "Il
monachesimo benedettino nel Mezzogiorno angioino:
Tra crisi e nuove esperienze religiose," in L'état angevin:
Pouvoir, culture et société entre XlIIe et XLVe siècle; Actes du
colloque international, Rome-Naples, j-ii novembre 199$,
Nuovi studi storici 45 (Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per
il Medio Evo, 1998), 205-20; and Tortorelli, "Aree cultuali
e cicli agiografici," 4, 10, 29-30.
42. According to Tortorelli, "Aree cultuali e cicli agiogra-
fici," il, after the Norman Conquest (1071), the Greek-rite
crypts are rare, or even nonexistent. Hans Belting also
notes that after 1071 the role of the Latin patrons is better
testified to and more prominent in comparison to the
Greeks. Belting, "Byzantine Art among Greeks and Latins
in Southern Italy," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 28 (1974):
1-29, at 4.
43. Diehl, L'art byzantin , 51-64; Medea, Gli affreschi
delle cripte , 1:91-101, 2: figs. 36-46; Marialuisa Semeraro-
Herrmann, LI santuario rupestre di San Biagio a San Vito
dei Normanni (Fasano di Brindisi: Schena, 1982), 70-168;
Michel Berger, "La représentation byzantine de la 'Vision
de Dieu dans quelques églises du Salerno médiéval," in
Histoire et culture dans l'Ltalie byzantine: Acquis et nou-
velles recherches, ed. André Jacob, Jean-Marie Martin, and
Ghislaine Noyé, Collection de l'École Française de Rome
363 (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2006), 179-203,
at 182-91; and idem, "La vision des prophètes et le cycle
christologique de la crypte de San Biagio à San Vito dei
Normanni (1196): Image et liturgie," in L'héritage byzantin
en Ltalie (Ville- Xlle siècle), vol. 3, Décor monumental,
objets, tradition textuelle, ed. Sulamith Brodbeck, Jean-
Marie Martin et al., Collection de l'École Française de
Rome 510 (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2015), 79-90,
pls. XIII-XV
44. Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 152.
45. Even though the dedicatory inscription is in Latin, the
templon traces and the iconographie program establish its
Orthodox-rite orientation. Berger and Jacob, "Un nouveau
monument byzantin," 211-57; ^d Linda Safran, "The
Art of Veneration: Saints and Villages in the Salento and
the Mani," in Les villages dans l'empire byzantin (LVe-XVe
siècle), ed. Jacques Lefort, Cécile Morrisson, and Jean-
Pierre Sodini, Réalités Byzantines 2 (Paris: Lethielleux,
2005), 179-92, at 181-82.
46. A special reference to the subject of the "iconismo
pugliese" can be found in Pace, "La pittura delle origini
in Puglia," 338-40. See also Lavermicocca, "Il programma
decorativo," 307, 321; Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipri-
ote," 285; Linda Safran, San Pietro at Otranto: Byzantine
Art in South Italy / San Pietro ad Otranto: Arte bizantina
in Italia meridionale, Collana di studi di storia dell'arte
7 (Rome: Edizioni Rari Nantes, 1992), 54; Marina Falla
Castelfranchi, "La decorazione pittorica delle chiese rupes-
tri," in Dell'Aquila and Messina, Le chiese rupestri di Puglia
e Basilicata, 129-43, at I3Iï Tortorelli, "Aree cultuali e cicli
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agiografici," 30; and Linda Safran, "Scoperte salentine,"
Arte Medievale 8 (2010): 61-86, at 61.
47. Apart from a few isolated frescoes, four narrative
thirteenth-century cycles survive, in the churches of Saint
Herakledios in the monastery of Saint John Lampadistes
in Kalopanagiotes, of the Panagia in Moutoullas, of
the Panagia Chryseleousa in Strovolos, and of the
Transfiguration of the Savior in Sotera, Famagusta.
Annemarie Weyl Carr cites for instance the cycle at Sotera
in which the Last Judgment is depicted for the first time
in Lusignan Cyprus, while the Christological scenes are
arranged unconventionally. Carr, "Art," in Cyprus: Society
and Culture, 1191-13/4, ed. Angel Nicolaou-Konnari and
Chris Schabel, Medieval Mediterranean 58 (Leiden: Brill,
2005), 285-328, at 296-97.
48. The accompanying inscription of the image is as fol-
lows: "Supplication of the servant of God Christophoros,
the judge, and his wife Maria." Mouriki, "The Wall
Paintings of the Church of the Panagia," 191-92, figs. 18,
19, supports the theory that the nearby images of
Saints Theodore and Paul were also commissioned by
Christophoros and his spouse.
49. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 285.
50. The first to express this opinion was Weitzmann, "Icon
Painting," 75; then D'Elia, "Per la pittura del Duecento
in Puglia," 165-67; followed by Pace, "La pittura delle
origini in Puglia," 331; and Mojmír Frinta, "Raised Gilded
Adornment of the Cypriot Icons, and the Occurrence of
the Technique in the West," Gesta 20, no. 2 (1981): 333-47,
at 336. Similar views have been posited about sculptural
decoration in Matera, but as Dorothee Kemper points
out, one has to be critical with such slants. Kemper, SS.
Niccolò e Cataldo in Lecce: Als ein Ausgangspunkt fur die
Entwicklung mittelalterlicher Bauplastik in Apulien und
der Basilcata , Manuskripte zur Kunstwissenschaft in der
Wernerschen Verlagsgesellschaft 41 (Worms: Wernersche
Verlagsgesellschaft, 1994), 132, 140-41, 143.
51. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 288-89. Safran,
San Pietro at Otranto, 157, sees this mushrooming of artis-
tic production as a wider Mediterranean phenomenon,
which also appears in Greece.
52. For the church of Santa Cristina, see Linda Safran,
"Deconstructing 'Donors' in Medieval Southern Italy,"
in Female Founders in Byzantium and Beyond, ed. Lioba
Theis, Margaret Mullett et al., Wiener Jahrbuch fur
Kunstgeschichte 60-61 (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2014),
135-51, at 136-41. For San Pietro, Otranto, the first fresco
layer is dated to the end of the tenth or the beginning of
the eleventh century. Safran, San Pietro at Otranto, 40-82.
53. On the relations and contribution of southern Italy to
central Italian art, see Pina Belli D'Elia, "Icone meridionali
e 'maniera greca': Prospettive per una ricerca," in Studi di
storia dell'arte sul medioevo e il rinascimento nel centenario
della nasata di Mario Salmi: Atti del convegno internazionale,
Arezzo-Firenze, 6-19 novembre 1989, ed. Vittoria Carmi and
Paola Semoli, voi. 1 (Florence: Ed. Polistampa, 1993), 295-308.
54. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote," 275.
55. David Abulafia, Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor
(London: Pimlico, 1992), 165.
56. Robert the Monk, Robert the Monk's History of the
First Crusade / Historia Iherosolimitana, trans. Carol
26 The Art Bulletin September 2017
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Sweetenham, Crusade Texts in Translation (Aldershot,
UK: Ashgate, 2006), 93; Pietro Dalena, "Le vie di pel-
legrinaggio medievale nel Mezzogiorno italiano," in Calò
Mariani, Il cammino di Gerusalemme, 449-62, at 455;
and Cosimo Damiano Poso, Città della Puglia meridio-
nale nei secoli XI- XV, Università degli Studi del Salento,
Dipartimento di Studi Storici dal Medioevo all'Età
Contemporanea 108 (Galatina: Congedo Editore, 2012),
53-86. For the port of Brindisi as a place of departure for
the Crusaders, see Rosanna Alaggio, Brindisi, Il medioevo
nelle città italiane 8 (Spoleto: Fondazione Centro Italiano
di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 2015), 114-22. 1 am very
grateful to Rosanna Alaggio, who kindly provided me
with a copy of her book.
57. Sofia Di Sciascio, "Reliquie e reliquiari dai Luoghi
Santi in Puglia: Prodotti crociati ed imitazioni locali," in
Calò Mariani, Il cammino di Gerusalemme, 327-42, at 337.
58. The Augustinián canons of the Templům Domini were
established by Godfrey de Bullion in the early twelfth
century. They resided close to the purported location
of the Temple of Solomon, on which the Dome of the
Rock had been constructed. Hubert Houben, "Templari
e Teutonici nel Mezzogiorno normanno-svevo," in II
Mezzogiorno normanno-svevo e le crociate: Atti delle XLV
giornate normanno-sveve, Bari, 1/-20 ottobre 2000, ed.
Giosuè Musca (Bari: Edizioni Dedalo, 2002), 251-88, at
259; and Anthony Luttrell, "Ospedale e Santo Sepolcro
in Puglia dopo il 1099," in Calò Mariani, Il cammino di
Gerusalemme, 477-84, at 480.
59. Ibid., 480. The medieval name of Barletta was Barolum.
For Barletta and the Holy Land, also consult Valentino
Pace, "Echi della Terrasanta: Barletta e l'oriente crociato,"
in Fra Roma e Gerusalemme nel medioevo: Paesaggi umani ed
ambientali del pellegrinaggio meridionale; Atti del Congresso
internazionale di studi, Salerno-Raveìlo, 2000, ed. Massimo
Oldoni (Salerno: Laveglia Editore, 2005), 393-408.
60. Pace, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export, 2," 245.
For example, a parchment in the archive of San Nicola in
Bari commemorates a group of German Crusaders who
passed by the church before their departure for Palestine in
1189. They even left a bequest for an olive grove of forty-four
trees, on condition that olive oil be provided for a wax
taper permanendy lit in their memory in the crypt of the
basilica. Pasquale Corsi, "Sulle tracce dei pellegrini in Terra
di Puglia," in Calò Mariani, Il cammino di Gerusalemme,
51-70, at 51, 66. For the pilgrimage taking place in Monte
Sant'Angelo, see Pina Belli D'Elia, "Pellegrini e pellegrinaggi
nella testimonianza delle immagini," in Pellegrinaggi e san-
tuari di San Michele nell'occidente medievale: Atti del secondo
convegno internazionale dedicato all'Arcangeb Michele / Atti
del XVI convegno sacrense, Sacra di San Michele, 26-29 settem-
bre 200/, ed. Giampietro Casiraghi and Giuseppe Sergi,
Bibliotheca michaeilica 5 (Bari: Edipuglia, 2009), 441-75, at
458-65. For the relics and pilgrimages of San Nicola in Bari,
consult Pasquale Corsi, "La traslazione delle reliquie," and
Vito Antonio Melchiorre, "I pellegrinaggi alla basilica," both
in San Nicola di Bari e la sua basilica: Culto, arte, tradizione ,
ed. Giorgio Otranto (Milan: Electa, 1987), 37-48, and
337-45, at 337-41.
61. Corsi, "Sulle tracce dei pellegrini," 55.
62. The inscription on the facade of the church com-
memorating the donation reads: "Hugo Lusignanus
Crucesignatorum Dux E Palestina Redux Anno Domini
MCXLVIII Templům Hoc Ubi Divus Petrus 'E Samaria
Ad Haec Littora Appulsus Vestigia Eidem Apostolorum
Principi Sacrum a Fundamentis Excitavit Et Erexit."
Giuseppe Moscardino, "L'antichissima basilica di S. Pietro
de 'Samari,"' La Zagaglia n, no. 42 (1969): 167-74, at
170-73; Maria Stella Calò Mariani, "Puglia e Terrasanta: I
segni della devozione," in La Terrasanta e il crepuscolo della
crociata: Oltre Federico II e dopo la caduta di Acri; Atti del
I convegno internazionale di studio , Bari-Matera-Barletta,
19-22 maggio 1994, ed. Calò Mariani, Rotte mediterranee
della cultura 1 (2001; reprint, Bari: Mario Adda Editore,
2009), 3-82, at 47.
63. On the southern wall of the main apse, a bilingual
inscription (Latin and Greek) mentions the artists/
mosaicists: Ephraim the monk, Basil, deacon of Syrian
descent, and a certain Giovanni, probably Venetian.
However, the mosaics in the basilica were crafted in 1169
and the persons undertaking this task were different from
those painting the columns. See Thomas S. R. Boase,
"Ecclesiastical Art in the Crusader States in Palestine
and Syria: Mosaic, Painting, and Minor Arts," in A
History of the Crusades , vol. 4, The Art and Architecture
of the Crusader States , ed. Kenneth M. Setton and Harry
W. Hazard (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1 977), 117-39, at 121-22, pls. XXXI-XXXIII; Gustav
Kiihnel, Wall Fainting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,
Frankfurter Forschungen zur Kunst 14 (Berlin: Gebr.
Mann Verlag, 1988), 4-5; and Maria Andarolo, "Dalla
Terrasanta alla Sicilia," in Calò Mariani, Il cammino di
Gerusalemme, 463-74, at 469.
64. The wall paintings of the columns were created by
different hands and at various dates. Boase, "Ecclesiastical
Art," 122; Kiihnel, Wall Painting in the Latin Kingdom,
5-128; and Jaroslav Folda, "Twelfth-Century Pilgrimage Art
in Bethlehem and Jerusalem: Points of Contact between
Europe and the Crusader Kingdom," in Romanesque and
the Mediterranean: Points of Contact across the Latin, Greek
and Islamic Worlds, c. 1000 to c. 1290, ed. Rosa Maria Bacile
and John McNeill, British Archaeological Association
(Leeds: Maney, 2015), 1-14, at 2.
65. Kiihnel, Wall Painting in the Latin Kingdom, 21, traces
the parallels with a specific fold on the maphorion of the
Virgin Glykophilousa in Bethlehem in southern Italian
examples (crypt of Crocefisso in Ugento, Sant'Angelo in
Santeramo, Santa Margherita in Mottola). Jaroslav Folda
also posits that a "Western Romanesque painter, proba-
bly from Italy" created this image. Folda, "Painting and
Sculpture in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099-1291,"
in A History of the Crusades, 4:251-80, at 255. In a more
recent study, Folda, "Twelfth-Century Pilgrimage Art," 2,
argues that the Virgin Glykophilousa was most likely exe-
cuted by a southern Italian painter.
66. Kiihnel, Wall Painting in the Latin Kingdom, 31-32,
fig. 22. For the Apulian fresco, see Falla Castelfranchi,
Pittura monumentale, 58, 61, fig. 42.
67. For more details, see Kiihnel, Wall Painting in the Latin
Kingdom, 141-42.
68. The dalmatic of Saint Stephen, richly decorated with
medallions outlined with pearls and enclosing a paired-
eagle motif, finds very close counterparts in Apulia (crypt
of the Candelora in Massafra, crypt of San Giovanni in
San Vito dei Normanni, among others). Kiihnel, Wall
Painting in the Latin Kingdom, 68, 145.
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69. This, of course, by no means denies Pace's seminal
work in the field. The term "artistic commonwealth" was
first used by Annemarie Weyl Carr to refer to the Crusader
art of Cyprus, Syria, and southern Italy. Carr, "Images of
Medieval Cyprus," in Visitors, Immigrants, and Invaders in
Cyprus, ed. Paul W. Wallace (Albany: Institute of Cypriot
Studies, University at Albany, State University of New
York, 1995), 87-103, at 97: "On many levels - of style,
iconography, ornament, Morellian detail - thirteenth-
century Cyprus belongs with Syria and South Italy to an
artistic commonwealth."
70. Dodd, Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, 85. Never-
theless, the "Acre Triptych" at Sinai can be considered an
exception (see n. 114 below for further details).
71. Hie affinity of the interlacing ornament in Lebanese
and Cypriot frescoes was pointed out by Hunt, "A Woman's
Prayer," 112-13, figs. 4, 5, 8, 9. See also Annemarie Weyl
Carr and Laurence J. Morrocco, A Byzantine Masterpiece
Recovered, the Thirteenth-Century Murals ofLysi, Cyprus
(Austin: University of Texas Press / Menil Foundation,
199 1), 90-91, figs. 31, 36. See also Leroy, "Découvertes de
peintures chrétiennes," pl. 1; Immerzeel, "Holy Horsemen,"
50-51, in a discussion of the Kaftun icon; and idem, Identity
Puzzles, 69, 89, 91, pls. 38, 52, 123. See also Carr, "Art," 300.
72. Mouriki, "The Wall Paintings of the Church of the
Panagia," 195, pl. LXXXTV, fig. 22. The Syrian blessing, or
"gesture of allocution," is described by Erica Cruikshank
Dodd: "the forefinger and the litde finger extended."
Dodd, The Frescoes of Mar Musa al-Habashi: A Study in
Medieval Painting in Syria, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies, Studies and Texts 139 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute
of Mediaeval Studies, 2001), 180-85, esp- 181; and idem,
Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, 49, 55n242, pl. 4:7.
73. When discussing the style of the Moutoullas frescoes,
Mouriki, "The Wall Paintings of the Church of the Panagia,"
208, 211, while recognizing the Western elements permeating
the frescoes, maintains that the Cypriot origin of the pro-
gram at Moutoullas can hardly be disputed.
74. For the presence of Syrians in Cyprus, see Peter W.
Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 101-2;
and Nicholas Coureas, "Non-Chalcedonian Christians of
Latin Cyprus," in Dei gesta per Francos: Études sur les croi-
sades dédiées à Jean Richard / Crusader Studies in Honour of
Jean Richard, ed. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar, and
Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001),
349-60.
75. As early as 1120, Syriac-speaking Maronites had a large
community in Cyprus and a cathedral in Famagusta. In
1181 they became allies of the Roman Church. George Hill,
A History of Cyprus, vol. 1, To the Conquest by Richard Lion
Heart (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940),
305; Philip K. Hitti, Lebanon in History: From the Earliest
Times to the Present (London: Macmillan, 1957), 324-25;
Jean Richard, "Le peuplement latin et syrien en Chypre au
XHIe siècle," Byzantinische Forschungen 7 (1979): 157-73, at
263 - 73; and Dodd, Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, 8-9.
76. For the frescoes of San Vito in Gravina, see Pace, "La
pittura delle origini in Puglia," 378-91, figs. 498-502, 504,
505; Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 193, 199,
figs. 176-80; Dell'Aquila and Messina, Le chiese rupestri
di Puglia e Basilicata, 169, no. 22; and Franco Dell'Aquila,
27 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Puglia e Matera: Insediamenti rupestri (Bari: Mario Adda
Editore, 2010), 41-45.
77. See for example the friezes on the arches decorated with
meanders and pseudo-Kufic patterns, the spiral columns,
the capitals with windswept acanthus, and the bricklike
masonry on the fronts of the arches. Compare the tendril
ornament on the halos of Saint James in Monterrone and of
Saint Bartholomew in San Vito Vecchio. Finally, the facial
features of some of the figures are identical. If we compare
the depictions of Saint James in both churches, it seems
that they were drawn by the same hand. Compare also the
awl-shaped nose of Saint Peter in Monterrone and that of
Saint Nicholas (even looking at the shape of their beards) or
the Enthroned Virgin in Gravina. Undoubtedly, a member
of the same workshop was involved in both chapels. For
San Giovanni in Monterrone, see Pace, "La pittura delle
origini in Puglia," 378, fig. 497, who juxtaposes Monterrone
and Gravina but does not comment on their stylistic sim-
ilarities. See also Raffaello de Ruggieri, Le chiese rupestri di
Matera (Rome: De Luca Editore, 19 66), 103-4, pi- 16, fig.
71; Dell'Aquila and Messina, Le chiese rupestri di Puglia e
Basilicata, 94; and Dell'Aquila, Puglia e Matera, 66-67.
78. See above.
79. Yet, although different, the ornaments seen in the
arches in murals of Bahdeidat, Moutoullas, Gravina, and
Monterrone recall geometric patterns festooning luxuri-
ous Islamic metalwork of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. For instance, save for the pseudo-Kufic patterns
imitating Arabic inscriptions, the beaded design and the
meander motif found in Gravina and the church of San
Giovanni in Monterrone evoke patterns decorating the
socket and neck of an inlaid brass candlestick made for
Zayan al-Din Kitbugha at the Museum of Islamic Art in
Cairo (ca. 1290). In addition, the oblong hexagon recalls
those found in royal Mamluk basins like the one kept
in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ca. 1300),
which was probably made for either Baybars I (r. 1260-77)
or Baybars II (r. 1309-10). See Esin Atil, Renaissance of
Islam: Art of the Mamluks (Washington, DC: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1981), 64, no. 15, 69-71, no. 18. For
more examples of the pattern in metalwork objects of
the Islamic world, see Mehmet Aga-Oglu, "About a Type
of Islamic Incense Burner J Art Bulletin 27, no. 1 (1945):
28-45, figs- U 16. 1 wish to thank Scott Redford for
bringing to my attention the similarity between the hexa-
gon pattern in the frescoes and the Mamluk metalwork.
80. Klaus-Rainer Althaus, Die Apsidenmalereien der Höh-
lenkirchen in Apidien und in der Bańlikata: Ikonographische
Untersuchungen, Schriften zur Kulturwissenschaft 2
(Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kováč, 1997), 19-37, 4*-73> 143~49;
Berger, "La représentation byzantine de la 'Vision de Dieu,'"
180-81; and Safran, lhe Medieval Salento , 145. For the images
of Christ in Early Christian apses, see Jean-Michel Spieser,
"The Representation of Christ in the Apses of Early Christian
Churches," Gesta 37, no. 1 (1998): 63-73.
81. Boase, "Ecclesiastical Art," 122-23, ph- XXXIV, XXXV;
Annemarie Weyl Carr, "The Mural Paintings of Abu Gosh
and the Patronage of Manuel Comnenus in the Holy
Land," in Folda, Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century, 215-
34, at 215; and Kiihnel, Wall Painting in the Latin Kingdom,
153-57, pls. XXXVIII, XL-XLIX.
82. Dodd, Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, 32-33;
and Immerzeel, Identity Puzzles, 71-72, 102, pls. 44, 64.
For the Beasts of the Apocalypse and the eschatological
dimension they give to an image, see Nafsika Panselinou,
"Ta avpßoXa xcov cuayyeXioxóv axīļ ßt^avxivfj
pvrļpeiaiaļ xéxvq. Mopcpfj Kai rcepiexopevo" [Evangelist
symbols in monumental Byzantine art: Form and
content], AcXxíov xrjç XpioTiaviKijç ApxaiokoyiKrjç
Etaipeíaç [Bulletin of the Christian Archaeological
Society] 17 (1993-94): 79-86.
83. The most ancient Deesis in an Apulian apse is to be
found in the crypt of the Gravina di Riggio near Grottaglie
(early tenth century). For the Apulian churches, see
Pasquale Lentini, Il fenomeno della civiltà rupestre nel ter-
ritorio di Mottola , Studi mottolesi 1 (Galatina: Congedo
Editore, 1988), 96; Falla Castelfranchi, "La decorazione
pittorica," 129, 132; and Safran, The Medieval Salento ,
145-47. The depiction of the Deesis did not always indi-
cate a funerary use of the space. On the contrary, the
Divine Liturgy could be celebrated as well. On the apse of
the church of the Panagia Pergaminiotissa in Akanthou,
Cyprus (early twelfth century), the Christ was probably
depicted. See Chotzakoglou, "BoÇavxivrj apxixacxovucrj
Kai xéxvq," 592; and Papageorghiou, Christian Art in the
Turkish-Occupied Part of Cyprus, 32. A Deesis was displayed
(early twelfth century) in the apse of the church of the
Panagia Apsinthiotissa at Sygchari, as well as in the church
of the Holy Cross in Pelendri (1178). See Chotzakoglou,
"BuÇavxivri apxixacxovucrj Kai xé^vq," 609; and
Papageorghiou, Christian Art in the Turkish-Occupied Part
of Cyprus, 435. For Pelendri, see Chotzakoglou, "BoÇavxivrj
apxixacxovucrj Kai xéxvq," 642.
84. Dodd, Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, 33, 34-35.
85. Ibid., 87; Stefano Parenti, A oriente e occidente di
Costantinopoli: Temi e problemi liturgici di ieri e di oggi,
Monumenta studia instrumenta liturgica 54 (Vatican City:
Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2010), 183-84; and Safran, The
Medieval Salento, 7, 140-41.
86. Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 111-18; see
also Pace, "La pittura delle origini in Puglia," 336, 338-40;
Safran, San Pietro at Otranto, 54; and Falla Castelfranchi,
"La decorazione pittorica," 140.
87. Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 118.
88. As, for instance, the twelfth-century frescoes in the
churches of local Melkite communities in Qara (Mar Yakub),
Horns (Mar Elian), or the thirteenth-century church of Saints
Sergius and Bacchus in Qalamun. See Leroy, "Découvertes
de peintures chrétiennes," 95-113; Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura
monumentale, 121; and Mahmoud Zibawi, Images chrétiennes
du Levant : Les décors peints des églises syro-libanaises au Moyen
Âge (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2009), 94.
89. Falla Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 121-22.
90. Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-
American Way (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 6.
91. Antonio Cornejo Polar, "Mestizaje, Transculturation,
Heterogeneity," in The Latin American Cultural Studies
Reader, ed. Ana del Sarto, Alicia Ríos, and Abril Trigo
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004), 116-19.
92. Ariruma Kowii, "Barbarie, civilizaciones e intercul-
turalidad," in Pensamiento critico y matriz (de)colonial:
Reflexiones latinoamericanas , ed. Catherine Walsh (Quito:
Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar/Ediciones Abya-Yala,
2005), 277-96.
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93. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London:
Routledge, 1994), passim.
94. Archbishop Andrea is not attested to in his dioceses
between 1228 and 1231, so it is possible that he participated in
the Crusade of Frederick II in the Holy Land. It seems that
he was related to the Crusader movement in Italy, as we find
him in Barletta having contacts with the Hospitallers and
the archbishop of Palermo. See Ferdinando Ughello, Italia
sacra sive de episcopis Italiae et insularum adjacentium, vol. 7
(Venice: Apud Sebastianům Coleri, 1721; reprint, Nendeln,
1970), col. 38; Francesco Panarelli, "Le origini del monastero
femminile di Santa Maria la Nova tra storia e storiografia,"
in Da Accon a Matera: Santa Maria la Nova, un monastero
femminile tra dimensione mediterranea e identità urbana
(XIII- XVI secolo), ed. Panarelli, Vita Regularis, Ordnungen
und Deutungen religiösen Lebens im Mittelalter 50 (Berlin:
LIT Verlag, 2012), 1-57, at 53.
95. It is also stated that the queen of Cyprus had actually
been visiting Matera when she found the nuns living in
the grottoes of Santa Maria de le Virtute (Virtù). See
Francesco Paolo Volpe, Memorie storiche profane e religiose
su la città di Matera (Naples: Simoniana, 1818), 256; Calò
Mariani, "Puglia e Terrasanta," 54-58; and Panarelli, "Le
origini del monastero femminile," 1, 13, 38.
96. Augustus Potthast, ed., Regesta pontifìcum romanorum,
vol. i, Inde ab a. post Christum natum 1198 ad a. 1304
(Berlin: Rudolph de Decker, 1874), 771, no. 8988; Lucien
Auvray, ed., Les registres de Grégoire LX, vol. 2, Texte-années
LX a XII (123 3-1239), BEFAR, 2nd ser. (Paris: Fontemoing,
1907), 4007, 4013; Ughello, Italia sacra, cois. 38-42; and
Volpe, Memorie storiche profane, 257.
97. Kemper, SS. Niccolò e Cataldo, 28-29, 102-11;
Christopher Schabel, ed., Bullarium Cyprium , voi. 1,
Papal Leuers Concerning Cyprus, 1196-1261, Texts and
Studies in the History of Cyprus 64 (Nicosia: Cyprus
Research Centre, 2010), 325-28, d-29; Jean Richard, "La
levée des décimes sur l'église latin de Chypre: Documents
comptables de 1363-1371," Eitcrrjpiöa x ou Kévxpov
EmfJxrjpoviKÓv Epcvvœv [Annual Review of the Cyprus
Research Center] 25 (1999): 11-18, at 15-16; and Nicholas
Coureas, The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1313-1378, Texts
and Studies in the History of Cyprus 65 (Nicosia: Cyprus
Research Centre, 2010), 381-82.
98. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents, a
certain Queen Giovanna di Cipro is mentioned, but such a
queen did not exist in Cyprus. Ughello, Italia sacra, col. 39;
and Panarelli, "Le origini del monastero femminile," 7, 9,
50-51. Alice was in fact the regent of Cyprus after the death
of her husband in 1218, as her son Henry was a minor.
Alice ruled with her lieutenant Philip of Ibelin until 1223
or 1224, when they quarreled. In 1230, we find her in Acre,
laying claim to her right to the regency of the Kingdom
of Jerusalem. For more on the quarrels of her rule, con-
sult Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus, 48-51; and Cristina
Andenna, "Da moniales novarum penitentium a sorores ordi-
nis Sánete Marie de Valle Viridi : Una forma di vita religiosa
femminile fra oriente e occidente (secoli XIII- XV)," in
Panarelli, Da Accon a Matera, 59-130, at 70-75.
99. Ughello, Italia sacra, col. 40; and Panarelli, "Le origini
del monastero femminile," 51.
100. Auvray, Les registres de Grégoire IX, 4013. Santa Maria
di Balneolo was not just a simple church, or masseria,
but the seat of an autonomous monastic community. See
28 The Art Bulletin September 2017
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Panarelli, "Le origini del monastero femminile," 5, 46, 51.
Ughello, Italia sacra, col. 38, 40, also records that a certain
Thomas Malabucchi (Malaboccha) and a nephew of his,
Accibardus (Eschinardo), donated to the nuns two crypts
in the "Civitate Gravinae," along with their cisterns and
all the surrounding buildings. See Panarelli, "Le origini del
monastero femminile," 47. For their holdings in Brindisi,
see Alaggio, Brindisi, 154-55.
ioi. Calò Mariani, "Puglia e Terrasanta," 60, 62; Panarelli,
"Le origini del monastero femminile," 17; and Andenna,
"Da moniales novarum ," 66-68.
102. It should be mentioned that apart from the clergy,
other people from Cyprus found an abode in Apulia. In
the first half of the duecento, French milites (knights) who
were forced to abandon Cyprus sought refuge in Apulia
and secured fiefs conferred by Emperor Frederick II. For
further details with specific names and places, consult
Emile Bertaux, "Les artistes français au service des rois
angevins de Naples," pt. 2, Gazette des Beaux Arts 34 (1905):
89-114, at 91; Maria Stella Calò Mariani, "San Nicola
nell'arte in Puglia tra XIII e XVIII secolo," in Otranto, San
Nicola di Bari e la sua basilica, 98-137, at 98-99; Antonio
Castellano, "Protomastri ciprioti in Puglia in età sveva e •
protoangioina," in Cultura e società in Puglia in età sveva e
angioina: Atti del convegno di studi, Bitonto, 11- 13 maggio
1987, ed. Felice Moretti, Studi Bitontini 47-48 (1989):
263-83, at 263- 64; and Raffaele Licinio, Castelli medievali:
Puglia e Basilicata; Dai normanni a Federico II e Carlo I
dAngiò (Bari: Edizioni Dedalo, 1994), 166-67.
103. Calò Mariani, "Puglia e Terrasanta," 63.
104. For the crypt of the Santissima Trinità (Santa Lucia),
see Pace, "La pittura delle origini in Puglia," 371-73.
For Cypriot connections, see Calò Mariani, "Puglia e
Terrasanta," 63; and idem, "Echi d'Oltremare," 262, figs.
42, 43. For stylistic comparisons, see Pace, "Il Mediterraneo
e la Puglia," 296, 299.
105. However, we should bear in mind that painting on the
surface of a wall was a more difficult task than creating an icon.
106. It is interesting to note that the possible donors of the
church were Latins; even Queen Alice of Champagne was
proposed as a putative sponsor. However, this view needs
firmer evidence for confirmation. See Immerzeel, "Holy
Horsemen," 43, 45; and idem, Identity Puzzles, 103-4.
107. Nello De Gregorio, Rinaldo e Giovanni da Taranto
nella storia dell'arte italiana: Il percorso pittorico di due
grandi artisti tarantini fra tradizione bizantina e mondo
gotico (Taranto: Scorpione, 2008), 22, 24, 53-57.
108. Sabino lusco, "Note sugli affreschi delle chiese rupestri
di Matera," Basilicata Regione Notizie 1, nos. 3-4 (1997):
119-28, at 124. The artist has been termed "maestro della
Bruna." See Rosa Villani, Pittura murale in Basilicata: Del
tardo antico al rinascimento (Potenza: Consiglio Regionale
della Basilicata, 2000), 48; Gaetano Curzi, Santa Maria
del Casale a Brindisi: Arte, politica e culto nel Salento
angioino (Rome: Gangemi, 2013), 47-48058. Maria Stella
Calò Mariani has related the sensibility of the painter to
that of Giovanni da Taranto. Maria Stella Calò Mariani,
"Considerazioni sulla scultura, sulla pittura e sull'architet-
tura a Matera fra Due e Trecento," in La cattedrale di
Matera nel medioevo e nel rinascimento, by Calò Mariani,
Carla Guglielmi Faldi, and Claudio Strinati (Cinisello
Balsamo, Milan: Pizzi, 1978), 48-53, at 49, pl. VI; and
Maria Stella Calò Mariani, L'arte del Duecento in Puglia
(Turin: Istituto Bancaria San Paolo di Torino, 1984), 180.
109. Calò Mariani, "Puglia e Terrasanta," 69.
no. For an early twelfth-century date, see Stylianou and
Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus, 62; and Bacci,
"Due tavole della Vergine," 41. 1 am not convinced of
the soundness of such an early dating, as the style of the
painting is not in harmony with the contemporary decora-
tion in the church. In a more recent article Michele Bacci
chronologically places the fresco at the end of the twelfth
century. Bacci, "Pisa bizantina: Alle origini del culto
delle icone in Toscana," in Intorno al Sacro Volto : Genova,
Bisanzio e il Mediterraneo (secoli XI- XIV), ed. Anna Rosa
Calderoni Masetti, Colette Dufour Bozzo, and Gerhard
Wolf (Venice: Marsilio, 2007), 63-78, at 71-72, fig. 16.
A fourteenth-century date comes from Sophia Kalopissi-
Verti, who considers the Virgin Hodegetria on the pillar
and her correspondent Christ in the narthex as products
of the same era. However, on closer inspection it becomes
evident that many details are different: for instance, the let-
ters on the labels (especially M, H), the decoration of the
haloes, and the rendering of the faces, with that of Christ
being harsher and more linear. See, for Kalopissi-Verti s
view, "The Proskynetaria of the Templon and Narthex:
Form, Imagery, Spatial Connections, and Reception,"
in Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical,
Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens,
East and West, ed. Sharon E. J. Gerstel (Washington, DC:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2006),
107-32, at 126, figs. 29, 30; and idem, "The Murals of the
Narthex," in Carr and Nicolaïdès, Asinou across Time,
157. For a fourteenth-century date for the image of Christ
in Kakopetria, see also Carr and Morrocco, A Byzantine
Masterpiece Recovered, 71, fig. 25.
in. For a date to about 1270, consult Cetty Muscolino,
"Matera, cattedrale della Madonna della Bruna," Bollettino
d'Arte 29 (1985): 127-33, at 130; and Pace, "Circolazione
e ricezione," 160-61. For a later date, see Calò Mariani,
"Puglia e Terrasanta," 69.
112. The Madonna della Bruna was reduced in 1578 to
fit into an altar. See Calò Mariani, Earte del Duecento in
Puglia, 180, fig. 246; Muscolino, "Matera," 130, fig. 5; and
De Gregorio, Rinaldo e Giovanni da Taranto, 30.
113. It is a general rule that the models were taken from
painters and not from theologians. Since an image subse-
quendy acquired a theology, it was then removed from the
artists sphere of control. Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence:
A History of the Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund
Jephcott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 19.
114. For the "Acre Triptych," see Jaroslav Folda, entry
to cat. no. 216, in Evans, Byzantium: Faith and Power,
357-59; idem, entry to cat. no. 13, in Pilgrimage to Sinai:
Treasures from the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, ed.
Anastasia Drandaki, exh. cat. (Athens: Benaki Museum,
2004), 108-11; and idem, Crusader Art in the Holy Land,
310-18. Weitzmann, "Icon Painting," 70-71, attributed
the central panel of the triptych to an Apulian painter
based on generic arguments, a view that was correctly
dismissed by Pace, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-
Export, 2," 246-47. In addition, Weitzmann attributed
the figures on the outside surfaces of the wings to the
same painter, but scholars disagree with him. Yet he
rightly remarked that Saints Nicholas and John the
This content downloaded from 37.120.201.228 on Mon, 08 Mar 2021 10:11:32 UTC
Baptist on the external wings of the Acre Triptych, who IV.8, IV.16, in Arte in Puglia dal medioevo al Settecento: Il
stand under arches, allude to the row of saints in San medioevo, ed. Francesco Abbate, exh. cat. (Rome: De Luca
Vito Vecchio in Gravina, and, in my opinion, to the Editori d'Arte, 2010), 162-63, 170. A recent study by Joanita
previously discussed groups of saints in Lebanon and Vroom navigates the imagery of Cypriot glazed pottery
Syria. For the painting in Naples, see Pierluigi Leone and relates it to other regions (among them, southern Italy
de Castris, Arte di corte nella Napoli angioina (Florence: and southern Turkey) and media (wall paintings and grave-
Cantini, 1968), 23, pl. 7. stones). Vroom, "Human Representations on Medieval
Cypriot Ceramics and Beyond: The Enigma of Mysterious
115. Edward B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting:
Figures Wrapped in Riddles," in Cypriot Medieval Ceramics:
An Illustrated Index (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1949), 127,
Reconsiderations and New Perspectives, ed. Demetra
no. 337; Ferdinando Bologna, I pittori alla corte angioina di
Papanikola-Bakirtzi and Nicholas Coureas (Nicosia: Cyprus
Napoli, 1266-1414 e un riesame dell'arte nell'età fridericiana
Research Centre and the A. G. Leventis Foundation, 2014),
(Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 1969), 58, 1- 31, figs. 65, 66;
153-87, at 171, 173, 179.
and Leone de Castris, Arte di corte nella Napoli, 23, 157, pl.
7. See also Maria Pia Di Dario Guida, Icone di Calabria 120. See for example a piece of proto-majolica ware found
e altre icone meridionali (Messina: Rubbettino, 1992), 76, in Acre depicting a soldier holding a sword and a Norman
79, pl. XIX, fig. 37; and idem, "... non poche madonne di shield dated to the late thirteenth century. Folda, Crusader
stil vetusto, che si venerano in diverse chiese. Della Madonna Art in the Holy Land, 133, 505, fig. 349.
del Pilerio a Cosenza alle icone campane del Ducento," in
Alla ricerca dell'arte perduta: Il medioevo in Italia meridi-
onal (Rome: Gangemi, 2006), 145-66, at 156-57, fig. 16.
Donai A. Cooper postulates that the panel was designed
to be mounted on beams or screens. Cooper, "In medio
ecclesiae': Screens, Crucifixes and Shrines in the Franciscan
Church Interior in Italy (ca. 1230-ca. 1400)," 2 vols. (PhD
diss., University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art,
2000), 140, fig. 5.33.
116. For a picture of the saint in Barletta, see Falla
Castelfranchi, Pittura monumentale, 163, fig. 137.
117. According to Linda Safran, this is unlikely both
because the portraits of the embracing couple are far from
the dedicatory inscription and because supplicants are
always depicted in devotional or supplicating posture.
Safran, The Medieval Salento, 29, 100, pl. 9. See also Calò
Mariani, "Echi d'Oltremare," 238, figs. 8, 9.
118. For the tableware displaying a married cou-
ple (Fig. 28), see Demetra Papanikola-Bakirtzi, "H
ecpoataopévq Kepapucrj anļ ßo£avrivf| peaaicovucf|
Ktkpo (12^-15^ aicòvaç)" [Glazed pottery in Byzantine
medieval Cyprus (i2th-i5th centuries)] in BvÇavnvr}
Meoaicoviicri Kvnpoç. BaoíXiaaa cmjv AvaroXrj &
Prjyaiva crrrj Avar} [Byzantine medieval Cyprus: Queen
in the East and regina in the West], ed. Papanikola-
Bakirtzi and Maria lakovou (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus
Cultural Foundation, 1997), 129-35, at U4> H5» no- 79-
For further examples with backgrounds featuring flowers
and stars, consult Arthur H. S. Megaw, "Three Medieval
Pit-Groups from Nicosia," and Joan Du Plat Taylor and
Arthur H. S. Megaw, "Cypriot Medieval Glazed Pottery:
Notes for a Preliminary Classification," both in Report
of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1937-1939 , 19 51,
145-68, 225-26, at pl. XLV, no. 6, and 1-13, at 8; Demetra
Papanikola-Bakirtzi, Meaaicoviicrj Kvjcpiajcrj jcepapeucq
azo Movaeío rov Iôpvpaxoç nicpíòrj [Medieval Cypriot
pottery in the Pierides Foundation Museum] (Larnaca:
Pieridis Foundation, 1989), 34-35, 86-93, nos. 12-15, 45;
and Demetra Papanikola-Bakirtzi, Véronique François,
and Katerina Prodromou, entries to cat. nos. 140-42,
in Chypre entre Byzance et l'occident: IVe-XVIe siècle, ed.
Jannic Durand and Dorota Giovannoni, exh. cat. (Paris:
Louvre Éditions / Somogy Éditions d'Art, 2012), 316-19.
119. Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, 132-33. For a few
instances of thirteenth-century proto-majolica from Lucera
and Trani, see Lisa Pietropaolo, entries to cat. nos. I V.7,
29 SOUTHERN ITALY, CYPRUS, AND THE HOLY LAND
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