Athos Holy Mount

Wood-Carving	8.8 Parts of a carved wooden iconostasis 1760 Simonopetra Monastery Kellion of St George Kalathas in Karyes
	These are from the kellion of St George Kalathas in Karyes, which was radically renovated, and some of the furnishings of its church were transferred to Simonopetra Monastery, to which the cell belongs. The bema doors are now kept in the sacristy of the monastery, while the Apostolika remained in Karyes and were affixed to the epistyle in the chapel attached to the lodge in which the monastery's representative lives. The bema doors: These have both painted and carved decoration, and each door consists of two sections: a solid lower section with relief decoration and three little icons, and an upper section with fretwork decoration and a single icon. The central strip between the doors is decorated with a series of roses alternating with trefoils and culminates in a disk bearing a representation of Christ. The upper fretwork section is ornamented with intricately twining tendrils, leaves, stylised roses, birds, and the icons of Gabriel on the left and the Virgin on the right. The lower sections are divided into four almost square compartments, each ornamented with fleshy leaves and the icon of a saint in a double, arched frame: St Basil, St John Chrysostom, St James, and St Ambrosios. Higher up are two long, narrow compartments containing tendrils, many-petalled roses, and tiny icons of the prophets Daniel and Isaiah. The solid section culminates in a narrow band with a stylised undulating tendril. The Apostolika: Two narrow bands of low relief and the arched frames of the icons with a rosette between the arches comprise the simple carved decoration. The inscriptions in a separate panel at either end are interesting. The left-hand inscription informs us: "ΕΓΕΝΕΤΟ ΤΟ ΠΑΡΟΝ Δια ΕΞΟΔΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΥΡ ΧΑΤΖΥΣΙΜΩΝ Κ(ΑΙ) ΤΩΝ ΤΕΚΝΩ(Ν)" (This was done at the expense of Master Hadzisimon and his children); the right-hand inscription: "ΔΕΗΣΙΣ ΤΩ(Ν) ΔΟΥΛΟΝ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΙΑΚΩΒΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΟΝΑΧΟΥ ΑΒΟΣΙΟΥ ΜΟΝΑΧΟΥ 1760" (Supplication of the servants of the Lord, James, hieromonk and Ambrose, monk, 1760). In the middle are the Deesis icons, on either side the Apostles, and at the ends, before the inscriptions, St George on the left and St Haralambos on the right. The presence of both saints on the epistyle shows that the Chapel of St George Kalathas was also dedicated to St Haralambos. Also, the fact that St James and St Ambrose are represented on the doors shows that this was the wish of the monks mentioned in the inscription. It should be noted that fretwork decoration, which, in this case, is not confined to the superstructure of the bema doors but covers much of the surface of the doors themselves, spread over the whole of the iconostasis after about the mid-eighteenth century, as Greek Baroque gradually flowered (see the Introduction). However, in the lower, unfretted section of the bema doors and in the relief parts of the Apostolika on the iconostasis from the Chapel of St George Kalathas, the relief has not yet entirely broken away from the technique of the first half of the eighteenth century.
	Bibliography: Unpublished.
	N.N.
	Index of exhibits of Monastery of Simonopetra 18th century

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