Kaisariani Monastery
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/01/01/01/221 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Kaisariani Monastery Athens |
| Dates | 1888-1910 |
| Donor/Creator |
Gillieron, Mr Emile |
| Scope and Content | The Tree of Jesse. The Tree of Jesse decorates the west wall of the Kaisariani narthex. The wall-paintings in this part of the church are less sophisticated than those of the naos with naïve/pictoresque details in the dense composistions. They date, according to a surviving inscription, to the 17th century. Made for John, 3rd Marquess of Bute by Gillieron and presented to the Fund by his son (see note in: BRF Corporate Records-List of BRF materials by RWS 1948). |
| Further information | The church of Panagia Kaisariani is the katholikon of the homonymous monastic complex built on the west slope of Hymettos, Attica. The church, which is dedicated to the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, is named after either the founder of the monastic complex or a miraculous icon of the Virgin which was transferred from Kaisareia to Attica. It is a tetrastyle cross-in-square church with octagonal dome decorated, in contrast to the Athenian-type domes, with rectilinear dentil cornice and eight single-lobe windows surrounded by two rows of brick arches. The cloisonné masonry of the exterior walls is impressively simple, almost devoid of Kufic inserts, ornamental brickwork and the vertical single cut bricks between the ashlar blocks. In the interior, the four columns which support the dome are ancient spolia. The narthex, according to the surviving inscription, was built and decorated in 1682 by the Peloponnesian painter Ioannis Hypatios at the instigation of members of the powerful Venizelos family. The wall-paintings of the nave date to the 18th c. The Enthroned Virgin depicted in the apse of the bema copies an icon by Emmanuel Tzane (1664). The attached south chapel is a post-Byzantine addition. The church has convincingly been assigned a date about 1100. |