Wall-painting with Saints Orestes and Eugenios (01416)

BXM: 001416
Exhibition room: II.4 The wall paintings of a Byzantine church: Episkopi in Evrytania

Date: 13th c.

Dimensions (cm): 266 X 246
Provenance: Episkopi, Evrytania

On the left stands St Orestes, full-length, frontal, in military dress and holding a shield and spear.  On the right, in a round frame with a red ground, is depicted St. Eugenios, bust length and holding a cross. It was part of a larger composition with the Five Martyrs of Sevaste.  It is worth noting that the artist has attempted to render the figures naturalistically and with individual facial features.  The scene comes from the south wall of the north-west chamber of the church of the Dormition of the Virgin in Episkopi, Evrytania and belongs to the third layer of painting which probably covered the whole of the interior of the church. It contains scenes from the Lives of the Virgin and Saint Nicholas, as well as scenes from a Christological cycle. The high quality of the painting has been associated with the aesthetic preoccupations which developed in Thessaloniki in the 13th century.