The island was reconquered at the climax of the Macedonian epoch and immediately very closely linked with the central government . Remains of fresco paintings from the period have been found in Kakopetria , Geroskipos and Kellia . Considerably more has survived from the period of the next imperial dynasty , Asinou , Trikomo and Koutsoventis are just the 'highlights' of the richly documented production of artists from the capital whose names are unknown . In the 10th. and early 11th. centuries , a clear style of painting on a grand scale dominates , setting great store on elegance and classicisticity and not neglecting emotional qualities for all its restraint in expression of feelings.

The austere nature of the monastic style is meant for distance , whereas the courtly one develops mannerist tendencies . In Lagoudera it is readily possible to comprehend what that means : Excessively long figures , abrupt , dramatic gestures , folds shaped by agitated lines , flowing garments which billow in forms which even a whirlwind cannot have created . Basically , the same trend is shown in this expressive form of painting , apparently contradicting the monks' austerity of form . Mysticism had changed the intellectual climate to a deeper spirituality .

Palaiologoi and Post-Byzantines

Just as between the Macedonian and Komnenian renaissance , the transitions from the late-Komnenian to the Palaiologan period are fluid . After the catastrophic conquest of Constantinople , the empire was limited to the areas around the capital . Cyprus which had fallen to the Crusaders already a decade earlier never returned to Byzantium and remained much longer in the western field of influence . In the meantime , relations began to reverse . Whereas earlier the West had profited from the art of the East , now western influences penetrated Byzantine art . This can be seen from the backgrounds which made increasing use of archidectures which were not to be found in the manner of building employed in the East . Also scenes such as the Burial of Christ or the three Women at the tomb are an import from the West .

The method of painting was determined by the hesychastic movement which wished to impart the ecstatic view of God symbolically . Bright colours begin to appear , a powerful blue being particalarly popular . Human emotions are now to the fore , the dramatic , abrupt gesture , the flattering garments are retained , but the corporeality is reduced . It is no longer the modulated forms of mannerism which determine the portrayal , but the hard broken lines . The unusually long figures give way to compressed ones . In Cyprus these trends arrived with some delay and mixed with gothic influences on account of the separation from the political centre . Plasticity and movement , realistic portrayal and a perspectively correct illustration encounter - sometimes more , sometimes less assimilated - Byzantine two-dimensionality , canonical figures with their size proportions dependent on their importance and ceremonial stillness . But despite all the external models , shadows will never be found in Orthodox pictures ; the light emanates from the persons and does not come , as a naturalistic portrayal would require , from some source .

Already in the period of the Ottoman conquest , art in Cyprus lost its aristocratic character , even if it was in the service of aristocratic Latin lords . A to a certain extent native rusticity dominated the production which , after 1571 , was for the most part restricted to the monasteries . The iconostasis , which had developed since the 12th. century from a simple rood screen between the altar area and the nave , took on great importance from the 14th. century on . Partitions made up of several rows of pictures , in part repeating the decoration programme , become usual . The carved supporting frame forms a new object of craftsmanship leading to some very fine examples in Cyprus .