The Perception of the Crusader in Late Byzantine and Early Post-Byzantine Ecclesiatical Painting in Epiros*

Abstract

This paper penetrates into the nebulous relations of Epiros with the Latin West after 1204 by examining representations of Crusaders in late Byzantine churches and early post-Byzantine catholica. I shall attempt to unveil the dark and base memories left over by Crusaders (especially of the Fourth Crusade), weave in an alternative way the historical stage that shaped collective memory in peripheral regions, as Epiros and propose a new methodological model for understanding the past at the absence of textual sources.