From Macedonian to Thessalian Tempi: from Rentina to Velika

Exhibition in the Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki, Greece

The Museum of Byzantine Culture invites you cordially to the opening of the exhibition “From Macedonian to Thessalian Tempi: from Rentina to Velika” on Friday, 21 December at 21.00 in the wing of temporary exhibitions “Kyriakos Krokos” of the Museum. 

Five selected fortification sites from Macedonia and Thessaly are presented, all connected to each other by virtue of the fact that they were founded, constructed or renovated during the reign of Justinian I (527-565). 

These are: the castle of Rentina, the fortification wall of Cassandreia, the castle of Pydna, the castle of Platamon and the castle of Velika. The city of Thessaloniki is also presented, as an example of a walled metropolis. 

The exhibition places strong emphasis on the road networks that developed between the fortresses along with the economic and commercial relationships that were established in the region. The course of each site throughout time is presented in parallel. Furthermore, this exhibition is yet another opportunity for the Museum of Byzantine Culture to promote significant excavational discoveries from Central Macedonia that, until today, have been stored in its warehouses and not displayed to the public.

The fortification wall of Kassandreia

iron arrowheads, 13th-15th cent.

birds and monogram on poterry, 13th-14th cent.

Ceramic vessels for daily domestic use, 13-14th cent.

The castle of Kitros

lion on ceramic vessel. 12th cent.

 Silver Venetian and Serbian coins. Venetian grossi of  Doges JacopoTiepolo (1268-75), Francesco Dandolo (1329-39) and of the Serbian King Stefan Uros II Milutin (1282-1321)

 Bronze bracelets, 10th-12th cent.

 metal forks, arrowhead, knife, key, bone needle and stylus.10th-12th cent. - 

surgical tool (kyathiscomele) 6th cent.

 Lion on red ceramic vessel, 12th-14th cent.

male ring, 10th-12th cent.

The castle of Platamon

 Crossbow bolt, iron arrowheads, 14th-16th cent.

 Byzantine and Ottoman ceramic vessels, 14th-16th cent.

 Crossbow bolts and one arrowhead, 14th-15th cent.

 Marble parts of a church. 11th cent.

Stirrups, cannonballs and stone missiles for catapults. 14th-16th cent.

The castle of Redina

arrowheads, horseshoes. 7th-14th cent.

 spurs, horseshoes. 7th-14th cent.

 various byzantine coins.4th-11th cent.

 iron knife blades and large knife. 10th-16th cent.

 Parts of a church. 10th-16th cent.

 Mosaic and frescoes. 5th-9th cent.

 Pseudosarcophagus marble cover. 11th cent.

Ceramic vessels. 12th cent.

The fortified city of Thessaloniki

 Bone parts of a composite bow. 13th-15th cent.

spurs, iron arrowheads. 13th-15th cent.

 Bone archer's rings. 14th-16th cent.

 crossbow bolts. 14th-15th cent.

 Crossbow bolts. 14th-15th cent.

iron arrowheads. 14th-15th cent.

Museum of Byzantine Culture

Wing of temporary exhibitions “Kyriakos Krokos

”Exhibition duration: 21.12.18 – 31.5.2019

Opening hours: 9.00-16.00 Entrance free

Museum of Byzantine Culture

Photos: Protostrator

Τhe Cretan Guard - Real or not?

In Osprey Men-at-Arms series' "the Varangian Guard 988-1453" a Cretan guardsman is depicted.[1]
The soldier supposedly belongs to the Cretan Guard who fought in the final siege of Constantinople in 1453.
The source mentioned is an icon from Megali Panagia in Patmos island. [7]

 1. Cretan archer. Osprey's "the Varangian guard"

Searching the subject, we discovered many icons of military saints with an almost identical clothing and equipment. [2][3][5][6][7]
Saint Theodore Teron, saint George, saint Merkourios and saint Fanourios all members of the same guard?
They wear a richly decorated cuirass- probably of hard leather-with pteryges for their waist, pinkish boots and even trousers with the same square piece of cloth on the knees.
Inside the leather corslet a long sleeved mail hauberk is worn and also rerebraces for the protection of the upper arms.
Weapons include sword, spear, bow and cuiver and round or square shield.

2.An excellent st.Theodore Stratelates slaying the dragon

3.st.Fanourios

Both works of Angelos Akotantos -15th century. From Athens byzantine museum and Heraklion icon gallery

The best and earliest of these works are signed by the painter Angelos Akotantos who lived and worked in Venetian Crete in the first half of the 15th century.
Some other icons seem to be later copies of his works (second half 15th-16th century). [5][6]

So, the question is : Could this be a realistic image of the Cretan warrior?

Let's face the facts...
Around 1450, Crete was already nearly 250 years under Venetian rule. In the Roman empire of the time, the army consisted of foreign mercenaries, few thousands of militia and city guardsmen and a handful of imperial guards and nobles.
After the civil wars and the Serbian and Ottoman conquests- already since the 1370's-  the local smiths and workshops stopped producing byzantine weapons and armors in large scale.
Probably the few rich nobles and guardsmen carried Italian or Turkish weapons.

The corslet of these saints seems rather an artistic conception. Copying the older byzantine and ancient style of cuirass with pteryges, it does not seem possible for this era.
Same goes for the wrapped boots.
Already since the 13th century a turn to unrealistic ancient looking depiction of military saints is obvious in byzantine art.
Akotantos follows this trend, in several other of his known works. [8][9]

On the other hand he seems to have painted some of the body armor and the weapons like the ones of his time.
In Archangel Michael icon, the leg protection, as well as the sabre seem contemporary.

In the icons under discussion, the mail shirt, the rerebraces, the sword and some shields could certainly be part of a 15th century Cretan warrior's armor.
Especially these hardened leather rerebraces were popular among Venetian nobles about a century earlier. The light armed locals may continued using them.

 4."Knight Collalto" - mid 14th century. Osprey's "the Venetian Empire", plate B

 5,6.Saint George killing the dragon, Saint George and Saint Mercurius. 16th century icons. Imitation of Akotantos' prototypes.

 7.The original of Osprey's plate. Saint Fanourios. Fine work of Angelos Akotantos. 15th century

8.Another depiction of st. Fanourios by the same artist. Body armor here is a stylized byzantine klivanion of earlier centuries.

9.Archangel Michael and the rich man. Here, the artist combines the unrealistic body armor with the contemporary plate leg protection. (combination with the wrapped boots seems funny)

10.Evangelist Mark -protector of Venice-  as a cardinal with his symbol, the lion.

Angelos Akotantos, mid 15th century

PS: In the same edition, we spotted some more fails, like the polearm-sickle  rhomphaia of the Varangians [11] and the weird weapon of Megalodiermineutis [12] based on an ill-shaped seal.[13]

 
                                                                                             11.        12.                                                                                              

                                                          13.

Soapstone Warriors (military saints in byzantine carved icons)

Sculpture was never really popular in byzantine art. The main reason for this was the close association of this form of art with the ancient pagan religion.
This does not mean in any way that sculpture ceased to exist with the prevalence of Christianity and the transformation of the ancient Roman empire to the medieval one (the Byzantine).
Reliefs, pannels, stattuetes and rarely statues were constantly produced for more than one thousand years.

An interesting category of sculpture artwork are the icons made of steatite, commonly known as "soapstone". They are mainly works of the 10th to 13th century (mainly the komnenian 11th-12th) and the majority of them depicts military saints.
It is probable that many of them belonged to officers and some were used as standards during litanies or battles.
The saints are depicted in detail, armed with arms of their time. This is really useful for the study of the byzantine military, since most of byzantine works of art tend to represent military saints with a more "antique" or "classical" style of arms and armor.

St.George. 11th cent. Steatite Icon. Vatopedi monastery, Athos, Greece

George is depicted as a cavalry officer.

He wears a klivanion cuirass (lamellar) with attached metal pteruges and a mail upper part-probably a hood.

His long leg protection (kampotouva) and tunick betray that he belongs to a cavalry regiment.

A spear, a long sword and an almond shaped shield are the saint's weapons.

St. Theodore Stratelates. 12th cent. Steatite

The saint is praying. The arms and armor are similar to those of St.George above. Note the pattern on the shield.

St.Demetrius. 12th cent. Steatite. (Louvre M.)

Demetrius here is an archer. Equipped with a composite bow, a spear and a round shield he wears a padded cuirass (zava) with attached pteruges.

St. Demetrius. 11th cent. Steatite.

The saint wears a chainmail coat and long boots, holds a sword and a shield is hanged by his shoulder.

St. Demetrius again. 11th cent. Steatite

 Saints on horseback. Demetrius on the left with a sword and a padded cuirass (similar to one above) and George spearing the dragon.

12th cent. Steatite (1.Kremlin, Moscow 2.MoBiA, New York)

St.Theodore, George and Demetrius. 12th cent. Steatite. Cherson

George in the center wears full lamellar protection, Theodore Stratelates a klivanion too and underneath mail, while Demetrius a chainmail. The first two hold a spear while Demetrius a remarkably long and broad sword. All of them have almond shaped shields.

The Arrest of Christ. 12th cent. Steatite

A soldiers lifts a mace (vardoukion).

The Crucifixion-12th cent. Steatite.

The centurion wears a headgear, a chainmail and an almond shaped shield.

Interrogation of Christ. 12th cent. Steatite. (Baltimore M.)

The officer on the left who strikes Jesus, does not wear armor but his uniform for the days of peace.

St.Demetrius wearing a lamellar cuirass (klivanion) with pteruges. 

He is holding a spear and a round shield -common in the 10th cent. 

By his right shoulder is hanged a broad sword in a decorated scabbard.

The cut-out panel at the base of the icon may have supported a standard that would have allowed the image to be carried in processions. 

The holes in the icon may mean that it was used as a cover for a book in the Latin West.

 Ivory icon 950-1000 (Metropolitan M.,New York)

The Louvre reliefs above belong to earlier and later periods and present a remarkable "classical" style. Arms and armor seem rather ancient than medieval.

Left and Right: The Harbavile Triptych, ivory panel, c.950

Center: St. Demetrius, steatite icon, 14th cent

Battle of the Old Testament- Full armed soldiers with round shields and kassidion helmets.

The Joshua ivory panel. mid 10th century (Metropolitan M, New York)

***

SOURCES:

1. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Byzantine Icons in Steatite, Vienna 1985

2. Christopher Walter, The warrior saints in byzantine art and tradition, Ashgate Publishing 2003

fragment of steatite icon from Traianoupolis, Greece. 12th cent