33-48

The Sculptural Decoration of the Old Katholikon of the Xenophontos Monastery on Mount Athos

Articles

• Παζαράς, Θεοχάρης Ν.
• ΠΑΖΑΡΑΣ, Θεοχάρης Ν.

The architectural sculpture of the old katholikon ofthe Xenophon Monastery occupies a special placeamongst the works of marble carving preserved onMount Athos. It comprises the following pieces:I. The four columns of the naos, with their bases, capitals and impost blocks.Four types of Corinthian capitals are represented,deriving from Early Christian monuments. Minor alterations, dating from the time when the church was built,can be detected on one of them.The impost blocks are pyramidal in shape. The motifson them show a certain eclecticism, combining foliatecrosses, reminiscent of Early Christian decoration, withheart-shaped palmettes, sprig-like palmettes, and interlinked roundels containing crosses and rosettes.II. The two columns of the lite, with their bases andcapitals. The capitals consist of the bases of windowmullions dating from the Early Christian period, onwhich foliate crosses have been carved.III. Three mullions, in the windows of the two choirsand the sanctuary conch.IV. The two springers above the entrance to the naosfrom the lite, the motifs and technique of which aresimilar to those of the impost blocks inside the naos.V. The door-frame in the entrance to the naos from thelite, which takes the form of a series of recessed frames,surrounded by a broad cyma moulding.VI. A cornice, in second use, over the doorway leadingfrom the outer narthex (itself of later date) to the lite. Itis decorated with a peculiar and unusual combinationof acanthus palmettes and upright acanthus leaves, insimple, stylized form.VII. The original marble templon, which is fully preserved behind the seventeenth century iconostasis. Itconsists of three independent screens, with monolithiccolonnettes, cylindrical at the top and square at the bottom, which are capped by cubic capitals and supportchamfered epistyles. None of the capitals, nor the epistyles in the side sections, are decorated. Only the chamfered face of central epistyle has decoration, consistingof an undulating tendril with vine leaves. The intersticesin the lower part of the central section of the templonare filled by two closure slabs adorned with the wellknown motif of a lozenge inscribed within a rectangle,with a large circle in the middle and smaller ones in thecorner sections. The circles enclose crosses, rosettes andplant motifs.With the exception of the columns in the lite and naos,with their bases and capitals, and the window mullions— all of which are spolia — the sculpture is directlylinked either to the time of the original construction ofthe katholikon, or to* the later additions. It may be divided into two chronological phases. The first includesthe impost blocks in the naos, the door-frame andspringers in the lite, and possibly the cornice of thedoor-frame in the outer narthex. Since these works havecommon motifs and technique, and furthermore arebasic structural elements of the building, they must havebeen executed when the church was first erected: in thetime of Hosios Xenophon, at the end of the 10th century. Stylistic considerations support this dating.The decoration on the capitals in the lite must also beassigned to the first phase of the church's history. Thecapitals were originally used undecorated as bases forwindow mullions, first in an Early Christian buildingand later in windows of the katholikon, possibly in thesame position as the present-day choirs, which wereadded in the first half of the 16th century.The templon, however, may be assigned to the secondphase. As a secondary feature, it was probably addedwhen the church was renovated by the Megas Droungarios, Stephanos (later to become a monk, with the nameof Symeon), in the second half of the 11th century. Thisdate is supported by the relief work both on the closureslabs and on the epistyle.

• Arts
• History and Archaeology

• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4640
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.1005