Η μεσοβυζαντινή γλυπτική στην Εύβοια: επισημάνσεις και ερωτήματα

In Euboea a significant number of high-quality works of architectural sculpture are preserved, which have been dated to the Middle Byzantine era (9th-12th century). These have only been partially studied, but this material forms a geographical whole which is useful for commenting on issues such as the circulation of stylistic trends, the mobility of marble masons and the existence (or not) of local workshops. The biggest proportion of Euboean Middle Byzantine sculpture consists of spolia of unknown provenance. Many of them have been recently exhibited in the collection of Karambabas Castle, Chalkis, while others remain dispersed all around the island. There are also a few valuable cases of sculptures from monuments, such as Aghios Loukas at Aliveri, Perivleptos of Politika, the two churches of Attali, Aghia Triada Kriezoti and Taxiarches at Karystos, which preserve the data of their archaeological context. An overview of this material shows that Euboean sculpture is directly connected to the productions of neighbouring Eastern and Central Greece, where two significant centres of this type of art flourished, Thebes and Athens. The productions of Euboea represented the most important stylistic trends, and Euboea hosted some of the most outstanding regional sculpture workshops of the era, such as the so-called ‘Theban Workshop’ which executed the marble decoration of Panaghia Skripou at Orchomenos (873/4) and the one that worked for the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas monastery and its dependencies (first decades of the 11th century). This close relationship means that the movement of artists between the coasts of the island and continental Greece was continuous. Some local peculiarities, concerning the preference for certain techniques are of great interest: there are cases of exceptional—for the standards of a provincial area—representations of rare subjects and of high quality. However, these special features do not provide us with evidence sufficient to support the theory that in Euboea local workshops were also active; an answer to this question depends on the progress of the study of the unpublished material that has been found on the island