International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

BYZANTIUM IN CHANGE. ART, ARCHAEOLOGY AND SOCIETY 
OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY – PART 2
Conveners:
 Jenny Albani
, 
Ioanna Christoforaki
Nektarios Zarras
, 
Innovation and Experimentation in 13-Century Painting: 
The Phenomenon of Eutychios and Michael Astrapas
Besim Tolga Uyar
, 
Thirteenth-Century Monumental Painting in Cappadocia: 
The Artistic Bonds between Byzantium, Seljuk Rūm, and the Eastern Mediterranean World
Annemarie Weyl Carr
, 
Icons: What Changed in the Thirteenth Century?
Irène Leontakianakou
, 
La datation des icônes du Sinaϊ de la Vierge allaitant et la question 
des origines de la « Madonna de l’Umilità »
Ioanna Rapti
, 
Art in 13
th
-Century Cilicia between the Mediterranean and Anatolia
Anastassios Ch. Antonaras
, 
Glass Production and Use in the Late Byzantine Period and Particularly in the 13
th
Century
Anastasia G. Yangaki
, 
Changing Byzantium: The 13
th
Century Viewed Through Its Pottery

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Nektarios Zarras
University of Münster, Münster, Germany;
[e-mail]
Innovation and Experimentation in 13-Century Painting: 
The Phenomenon of Eutychios and Michael Astrapas
Study of the work of two paramount painters of the early Palaiologan period, Eutychios and 
Michael Astrapas, is an ongoing challenge for historians of Byzantine art, as the deeper and more 
detailed examination of still unexplored aspects of their artistic creation continues to arouse great 
interest. A dominant characteristic of their painting, which appears already at the beginning of 
their career, is the conscious effort to renew the pictorial art of their time. Expression of the novel 
and the different seems to have been a profound artistic need for Michael and Eutychios, which is 
imprinted clearly in the first church they are known to have decorated, the Peribleptos in Ochrid 
(1294/5). Study of the Peribleptos, whether in the minutiae or in the totality of its painting, reveals a 
pioneering monument, which in comparison with the known painting of this period is innovative to 
such a degree that it makes the church unique. The innovations in the Peribleptos are encountered 
both in the iconography of the representations and in the design of the iconographic programme. 
The depiction of new and extensive iconographic cycles but also of individual subjects of profound 
theological content, the secular themes with their explicit references to antiquity, as well as the 
remodeling of earlier subjects in new types, all compose an emblematic monument which is clearly 
differentiated from its contemporaries. Furthermore, the innovations in the manner of organizing 
the iconographic subjects, either by using large single surfaces for narrative renderings, or smaller 
surfaces for individual subjects, in combination with the symbolism of the space, enhance the 
Peribleptos as a revolutionary monument in the thirteenth century.
The church in Ochrid represents all those changes in art that justify the transition from 
the Middle to the Late Byzantine period and which were to progress in the fourteenth century. 
Masterworks of Palaiologan monumental painting, creations not only of the Astrapas painters but 
also of other important artists in Constantinople, Thessaloniki and other cities, are the evolution of 
the basic pictorial principles observed in the Peribleptos. The remarkable effect of the Peribleptos 
on artistic developments during the fourteenth century leaves no doubt that the formation of the 
artistic personality of Michael and of Eutychios, in the period after the recapture of Constantinople 
(1261), is linked with the imperial capital. The artistic osmosis of the two painters from Thessaloniki 
with nearby Constantinople must have been continuous, because only thus can we explain their 
uninterrupted artistic development, which enabled them to evolve stylistically, but mainly to renew 
their iconographic repertoire and to create a new status quo through the pioneering way in which 
they project their painting within the architectural space. In their art and life, Michael and Eutychios 
are perhaps the most characteristic examples of professional painters of the Palaiologan age who left 
behind them a bold and groundbreaking oeuvre, the impact of which on artistic circles of the period 
was analogous to their surname – Thunder and Lightning!

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