Merely Eastern: Aspects of Monumental painting in Rhodes ana the Dodecanese in the 13th c. Between East and West. Papers of Inter. Scientific Conference, Moscow 2021, Moscow 2023, 334-353 (original) (raw)
B. Poulsen, P. Pedersen and J. Lund (eds), Karia and the Dodecanese. Cultural Interrelations in the Southeast Aegean II, Early Hellenistic to Early Byzantine, Oxford 2021, 2021
The island of Kalymnos, situated barely ten miles off the coastline of Karia, boasts a plethora of Early Christian monuments. In the fertile valley of Vathy, the ruins of a settlement dominate the deep bay, marking the importance of the island in the commercial sea routes of the Byzantine Empire. The church of Saint Kerykos, once a three-aisled basilica, still preserves some remarkable remnants of its initial decoration. These frescoes of exquisite quality were attributed to the period after Iconoclasm. This essay will support a different view: that they are clearly representative samples of Early Christian painting; at the same time we will look for possible connections with contemporary wall paintings in the adjacent region of Karia and more specifically with the murals of the church of Holy Apostles at Kuçuk Tavşan Adasi – an islet off the Bodrum Peninsula – which scholars date to the 6th century.