Summary
Ioannis Perrakis & Georgios Fousteris, Turbulence in athonite painting at the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century
Financial collapse of the athonite monasteries gradually led to a stop in monumental painting at Athos in the beginning of the 18th century and consequently a discontinuation of the tradition of the 16th-century great masters. As a result, when the gradual economical improvement allowed the monks to restart monumental painting at the end of the 17th century, there was no alternative than to invite painters outside of Athos, such as the workshop that worked at Hilandar and Vatopaedi monasteries in 1680s.
A member of that worshop, stemming from Ioannina hieromonc Damaskinos, gradually became one of the most prolific painters at Mount Athos, who was commissioned for small and big scale works by various monasteries. His work, as a practically self-taught painter, never approached the quality of that of the previous masters, whose work tried to copy in an empirical way. His style, despite the fact that it had nothing to do with that of the renowned works of the 16th century, was regarded as continuation of them and gained a status of "official" athonite style of painting.
This was challenged by a new group of painters of great artistic learning that expressed the demand for change, the hieromoncs Dionysios from Fournas, the writer of renown Hermenia, and David from Selenitsa in Albania, as well as Kosmas from Lemnos island. Making an artistic jump to the past they propagated a return to the art of the late byzantine period as it could be traced at Protaton. Even though they were given the chance to show the quality of their work in minor1,s,c ale commissions by some donors who approved their style, the overall d6minance of Damaskinos' way of painting presented insurmountable obstacles in letting the new "taste" being accepted by the long accustomed to Damaskinos ' "traditional" style monks. Their new artistic proposal caused a great arguing among them and finally all three "modernist" painters were made to leave Mount Athos and continue their work out of its conservative atmosphere.
Judging from Dionysios' personal accounts incorporated in his Hermenia we can assume that he was taught painting at Mount Athos by Damaskinos himself, who was the "master" of that period . Compairing though his instructor's works to those of older masters, especially to Panselinos's paintings at Protaton, led him see his teacher as an untalented painter whom he finally left in search of another one with grounding knowledge of painting . He associated with David from Selenitsa, by whom he was taught to paint in Panselinos' style.
Whereas Dionysios' renovating ideas did not succed in making a change in athonite painting, Damaskinos, having been heavily critised by Dionysios, tried at his latest works, humbly complying with his opponent's advice, to copy some paintings from Protaton in an attempt to bring his style in accordance with the older tradition. His unsuccessful effort though showed the limit of his work. He finally gave his blessings to his apprendices to experiment with Dionysios' teachings portrayed at Hermenia, whereas his unpromising personal style was abandoned for ever.
