CHURCH OF PANAGIA OF MOUTOULLAS

Adorned with particularly rare ^13th-century frescoes, this Greek Orthodox church (Ιερός Ναός της Παναγίας του Μουτουλλά/Ieros Naos tis Panagias tou Moutoulla) is one of ten painted churches on the Troodos listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Small in size, the building was built and decorated as a private chapel in 1280, as attested by the inscription and portrait of the two donors, Ioannis and Irini de Moutoullas. A narthex was added in the ^15th or early ^16th century. The frescoes, by an anonymous artist, are characterized by their naive, austere style, with both Byzantine and Latin influences, a weak color palette and bodies rendered deformed by a disregard for realism and human morphology. All these elements testify to a certain artistic isolation of Cyprus at the end of the ^13th century: the painter was forced to find graphic solutions that were often unprecedented. This is particularly evident in the depiction of Saint Christopher, here painted as a "holy warrior" on horseback, whereas he is usually depicted crossing a river on foot with the infant Christ on his shoulder. Also noteworthy are the two snakes coiled around the Annunciation scene and the representation, unique in Cyprus, of the episode of the "Sleeping Seven of Ephesus": seven Christians mysteriously put to sleep and walled up in the ^3rd century, then miraculously found alive a century later.