Soldiers in Frescoes in the Church of St Heracleidius at the Monastery of St John Lampadistis, Kalopanayiotis, Cyprus, c.1400AD

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Soldiers in the
Frescoes in the Church of St Heracleidius at the Monastery of St John Lampadistis, Kalopanayiotis, Cyprus, c.1400AD

The Magi follow the star, Italo-Byzantine style 15th century mural in Latin Chapel Monastery Church of St John Lampadistis, Kalopanayiotis, Cyprus.	ΌΕΠΕΓΜΌΕ Cyprus, Kalopanayiotis, the Church of St Heracleidius in the Monastery of St John Lampadistis, the mocking.
Cyprus, Kalopanayiotis, the Church of St Heracleidius in the Monastery of St John Lampadistis, the Via Crucis, Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross.	The Crucifixion, Kalopanayiotis, Cyprus, Church of St Heracleidius in the Monastery of Saint John Lampadistis.

Description : Cyprus, Kalopanayiotis, the Church of St Heracleidius in the Monastery of St John Lampadistis.
Country : Cyprus
Source: Sonia Halliday Photographs

[Referring to the Betrayal scene in this church:]
Various kinds of dress, shoes, type of armours, showing a mixing of military influence from Latin states, Byzantium and Venetia are more visible in the Cretan and Cypriote frescoes. In some paintings the warriors wear typical Western equipment, like in the scene of the Betrayal of Saint Paraskevi in Kandanos, where the soldiers wear red lacquered bacinettos,⁷³ very similar to the specimens found in Khalkis,⁷⁴ or in the Church of St. Herakleidos of the Monastery of Saint John Lampadistis, in Cyprus (c.1400 AD):⁷⁵ in this last painting the armour of the soldiers is purely of Western type, dominated by a "bascinet" fitted with a camail or a curtain of mail, i.e. a slightly pointed helmet with a piece of mail attached to its bottom rim and spread out over the shoulders, overlapping the plate armour as additional protection, which is a typical evolution of the 14th c. in the West. One of the bascinets has a white plume, probably a symbol of command. The artist mirrored probably warriors of the Lusignans, rulers of Cyprus until 1489 AD. This is confirmed also by the sign of the cross painted on the epaulets of one of the warriors.

73 Cultural Association of Kandanos 1999, pp. 217-218.
74 Nicolle 1999a, p. 63 nn. ~~E,F~~ [G].
75 Stylianou, Stylianou 1992, p. 577, Pls. 320-321.

Source: pp.91-92, Raffaele d'Amato The Betrayal: Military Iconography and Archaeology In The Byzantine Paintings Of The 11th-15th C. AD Representing The Arrest Of Our Lord