The Fall of Constantinople to the Latins of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and its final conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 bracket the final period of the Byzantine Empire. It was a difficult time and the Empire was struggling to survive, with its economic affairs in a bad way, with civil wars, and with its territory gradually dwindling. Yet, strangely enough, artistic and intellectual activity flourished anew.


General view




Carrefour Marinopoulos SA

Room 7: The twilight of Byzantium
For Thessaloniki the Late Byzantine period was a time of artistic creativity, the influence of which spread as far as Mount Athos and the neighbouring Slavonic peoples. 
The exhibition presents representative works of art of the period, such as the well-known 'epitaphios of Thessaloniki', icons, and frescoes, as also relief marble icons. A number of works for use in burials furnish information about the burial customs, painting, sculpture, and portraiture of the period. The exhibition also presents Thessaloniki's mint, its glass industry, and pottery workshops that have been located in Macedonia and Thrace.

The exhibition and the conservation of the exhibits were financed by Carrefour-Marinopoulos S.A. in memory of Ioannis P. Marinopoulos.


Epitaphios, c.1300
Epitaphios, c.1300
detail
An epitaphios is a liturgical cloth used in the Good Friday service in the Orthodox Church. This gold-embroidered silk epitaphios, from Thessaloniki, is one of the finest works of the period (1204-1453). The dead Christ is flanked by the Communion of the Apostles (Metalepsis and Metadosis), with the symbols of the evangelists in the corners.

Christ as the 'Wisdom of God', 2nd half of 14th c.
Christ as the 'Wisdom of God', 2nd half of 14th c.
The icon, which comes from the Church of Agia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Thessaloniki, bears an inscription in which Christ is mentioned as "Sophia tou Theou" (Holy Wisdom). It is the work of an excellent yet anonymous artist.
Nevertheless, eponymic painters of the time from Thessaloniki, such as Michael Astrapas and Eutychios, were invited by Serbian rulers to work in their dominions.

Glass vessels, 13th-14th cc.
Glass vessels, 13th-14th cc.
The glass finds from excavations in Thessaloniki attest both the existence of glass workshops in the city and its commercial contacts with Venice and the Islamic East.

Omphalion with a representation of a lion attacking a hare, 13th c.
Omphalion with a representation of an eagle attacking a hare, 13th c.
The marble omphalion, from the floor of the Church of Agia Sophia in Trebizond, was brought to Thessaloniki by the Greek refugees in 1924. The low relief and the traces of coloured mastic in the crevices are typical features of the sculpture of the period.