The church of Aghios Georgios is situated in the village of Melissourgaki (Mylopotamos district, Rethymno). The region was included in the feud of the local noble family Callergis. The building is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church, with...
moreThe church of Aghios Georgios is situated in the village of Melissourgaki (Mylopotamos district, Rethymno). The region was included in the feud of the local noble family Callergis. The building is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church, with two strainers. Its external views (doorways, windows, western façade, belfry) reflect a major reform done in 1902, with the addition of a narthex to the original plan. The whitewashed mural decoration was revealed from the Archaeological Service during the 1970’s, while a conservation project, carried out by the 28th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, was completed in 2007.
The iconographic program is partially preserved. On the half-dome of the apse dominates the Pantocrator from a Deesis scene, and the half-cylinder is adorned with the Melismos. The barrel-vault of the sanctuary is covered with the Ascension, while on the lateral walls are depicted frontal figures of hierarchs and deacons, and four scenes : Jesus Appears to the Holy Women (Chairete) and the Vision of Saint Peter of Alexandria (south wall), the Empty Sepulcher and the Sacrifice of Abraham (north wall). On the south wall of the naos can be discerned fragments of the Nativity, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the Parable of the Ten Virgins and scenes from the Last Judgement’s composition. On the northern wall are preserved the following : Betrayal of Judas, Helkomenos, choirs of saints from the Last Judgement, Crucifixion, Descent to Hades and fragments from the Incredulity of Thomas. On the third zone of both lateral walls were depicted scenes from the synaxarium of Saint George, while most of the standing figures of the fourth zone were destroyed due to the opening of two large windows.
The high quality and the style of the paintings classifies them amongst the best examples of a trend traced in the late 14th - and early 15th century Crete. N.Drandakis was the first to link this trend with the idealistic Constantinopolitan art of the early 14th century, while M.Borboudakis developed a theory about an artistic atelier, trained from Constantinopolitan artists, and hired by the Callergis family. The wall-paintings in Melissourgaki, compared to dated monuments, and mostly with Aghios Georgios in Artos (1401), could be placed in the last decade of the 14th century.
