Thirteenth-Century ‘Byzantine' Art in Cappadocia and the Question of Greek Painters at the Seljuq Court

For the period between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Cappadocia was a strategic province along the eastern margins of the Byzantine Empire. There, countless troglodytic monuments still survive amid the rocky landscape. Churches (many of which contain extensive wall paintings), monasteries, and secular settlements, exhibit tangible evidence of the area’s importance within the artistic traditions and material culture of the eastern Christian world during the Middle Ages. ¹ Toward the end of the eleventh century, however, the long-established Byzantine rule over Cappadocia was interrupted. The Seljuq Turks burst onto the political scene with successive raids that pushed into the heart of Asia Minor. In a relatively short period of time, their advance led to the conquest of much of Anatolia.