Monastery of Hosios Loukas

Hosios Loukas is the name of a monastery in Beotia, Greece. The monastery has two churches. The smaller one, the Panagia, is dedicated to the Theotokos (Mother of God). It was probably built in the late tenth century. The second is the Katholikon, dedicated to a local hermit, Luke of Stiris. The date of the construction of the Katholikon is uncertain, but is probably somewhere between 1011 and 1048.

While the interior of the Katholikon is richly decorated with mosaics, it is the exteriors of the two churches, particularly that of the Panagia, that are of interest here. The facing was executed using the cloisonné technique: the stones are framed all round with a brick. This technique was often used in churches built in central and southern Greece from the late tenth century. The decorative bands are made of bricks imitating Kufic characters.

Kufic is an angular Arabic script. Here, it is a question of pseudo-Kufic script or motifs, as they freely imitate this script without seeking to produce a real text, their function being purely decorative. However, there is a bronze chalice, found in Eleusis, decorated with both real Kufic letters and pseudo-Kufic characters. Unexpectedly, these letters became an embellishment very common in the Byzantine world between the late tenth century and the early twelfth century. Also painted on the chalice is the scene of the Communion of the Apostles, represented in the small twelfth-century Cypriot Church of the Holy Apostles in Perachorio, and used as motifs in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Athens and the Church of the Saints Theodores.

In Hosios Loukas, the sculpted slabs that decorate the drum of the dome of the Panagia also sport Islamic motifs. Reliefs featuring motifs similar to sculptures found in the Islamic world are also used in the church known as the Small Metropolis in Athens. But, in this case, they were reused, whereas the slabs of the Panagia of Hosios Loukas were sculpted specially for this monument.

The recapture of Crete by the Byzantines was perhaps the event that led to the scattering of Arab craftsmen who worked for the court of the small and prosperous Arab principality that had developed on the island. Some of them were able to take refuge in Greece, contributing to the dissemination of these motifs of Arab origin. The presence of Muslims in the Empire is, moreover, attested to by the mosques found in Greece from the tenth century at the latest, such as that of Athens. More generally, Arab-inspired decorations were greatly appreciated during this period. This type of ornamentation and the use of classicising motifs in the Byzantine Empire are characteristic of the Macedonian Renaissance.

There was also interest in the decorative aspect of pseudo-Kufic characters in the West, such as on the lip of the lower vessel of the ciborium of Master Alpais in the Musée du Louvre[1].