The region of Agrapha was prosperous during the years of the Turkish occupation since already from the early fifteenth century its rulers had granted it with a special status of self-administration. In the following century and especially after the Treaty of Tamasion (1525), the communities of Agrapha were administered by a council seated at Neochori. Certain portraits of donors in churches bear reliable witness to the civilization which had developed in the region of Agrapha they also supply us with information on the society of their time. These representations of eleven, altogether, donors date from the sixteenth (one portrait), seventeenth (eight) and eighteenth century (two portraits). They show the artist or artists’ effort to precisely render the age and costumes of the represented persons (hair, beard, ornaments), but not individual features. However, the representation of such a number of donors clearly shows the economic welfare of the region as well as the high religious feeling of the enslaved Greeks during the years of Turkish occupation.
Portraits of the Donor in monuments of Mount Agrapha
07 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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