Virgin Galaktotrophousa the “Episkepsis”: A wall painting at the catholicon of the Monastery of St. Nicholas at Metsovo, Ioannina (1702)
Virgin Galaktotrophousa the “Episkepsis”: A wall painting at the catholicon of the Monastery of St. Nicholas at Metsovo, Ioannina (1702)

Summary/Abstract: South of Metsovo (Ioannina, Greece), in a valley above the Arachthos river, lays the earliest monastery of the region, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The catholicon (main church) is decorated with frescoes in three successive periods. The first phase of the wall paintings dates to the mid-17th century. A dedicatory inscription testifies to 1702, constituting the second phase of paintings. This paper aims to present the monument in its entirety and then trace the iconographic patterns and interpret the conceptual content of a specific wall painting that decorates the exterior south wall of the catholicon: the Virgin Galaktotrophousa, inscribed as “Ἡ Ἐπίσκεψις”.

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