ABSTRACT
Book Title – Greek Monasticism in Southern Italy: The Life of Neilos in Context (edited by Barbara Crostini and Ines Angeli Murzaku)
Chapter Number & Title – Chapter 4 : Art and Architecture for Byzantine Monks in Calabria: Sources, Monuments, Paintings and Objects (Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries) (by Lorenzo Riccardi)
Byzantine art in Calabria has normally been considered the principal expression of Greek monastic culture in that region. This pan-monastic historiographical position is here revised through a number of paintings and sculptures that reveal a different patronage and social background. I here examine together written sources such as documents and saints’ Lives and material remains in order to discern more clearly what objects can with greater certainty be referred to monastic contexts. The paper covers testimonies from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, of increasing magnitude and importance, including some unique survivals such as the Vita icon of two monks, St Anthony and St Leonard, at the church of St Donatus ‘al Pantano’ (late 12th – early 13th c.).
