Coloured

The first scene depicts the arrest of Athanasios Diakos, the hero of the Greek War of Independence, who was put to death in spring 1821. The garments of both the hero and the Turkish soldiers are copies of the same figures depicted in imported prints. In the scene next to that of the arrest of Diakos, appears a man wearing narrow black knee-breeches, a white shirt under a blue sleeved jacket closed with buttons at the front, a broad colourful sash or belt, as well as red and blue striped stockings; in his right hand he holds a dagger, while a sabre or yatağan is hanging from the belt. Most impressive is the tall head-cover consisting of a series of superimposed scarves. The whole appearance recalls the traditional costume of the zeybek, infantrymen from Soutwest Ana­tolia. Similarly dressed are the Turkish soldiers who arrest the hero in the following scene on the same wall, except for their head-covers, which comprise a tall fez with a turban. Be­tween the two scenes is depicted the tree of paradise with the snake coiling up the trunk. A young lady holding flowers appears at the extreme right (Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1989, 195-202, plates LXV:1, 2, and LXVI: 1; Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1996, 160, fig. 144).

Donor wearing blue baggy trousers in an icon of 1852. The icon depicts the Transfiguration on the upper part, and Saint John Prodromos with the kneeling donor on the lower part. Church of the Transfiguration, Kato Mylos, Limassol district.

The Christian Orthodox donor wears blue wide trousers (vraka) in combination with a striped shirt and over it a red waistcoat and a dark blue jacket.

A donor is depicted with his family in an icon of St John Prodromos, dated 1794, in the Church of St John Prodromos, in Dromolaxia. The donor himself wears a long red coat lined with fur and closed with a button(?) at the base of the neck; also, a red skullcap covered with black fur (apparently a kalpak) and a striped turban wound around its base. The lady’s heavy overcoat, made of patterned brocade and lined with ermine fur, is open in front to expose a colourful anterín with a buckled belt at the waist. The deep décolletage is covered with the white shirt. Her headdress is a tall pointed cap (tarpuş/serpuş) with a veil draped over it. The attires of the four children, two male and two females, resemble those of their parents, respectively. The boy wears a red skullcap. Bright scarlet coloured fabrics are sharply contrasted with black and gold yellow patterned ones

A few years later, in 1881, an amateur painter, Colonel Benjamin Donisthorpe Alsop Donne, paint­ed two watercolours presenting ‘A Greek Peasant on the Limassol Works’ and ‘A Turkish Cypriot Worker’, respectively, as if he wanted to urge us to compare the appearance of the two. Both wear their traditional cos­tume, each part of which is accurate­ly depicted: the Greek (shown from the front) wears a black waistcoat crossed over the chest and with two oblique rows of buttons, over a white shirt, black baggy trou­sers (vráka), which meet the black top boots under the knee, a crimson broad sash at the waist and a crimson fez with a striped headscarf round it.

The tall house with the tiled roof and the flag belonged to Richard Mattei, who owned a prosperous farm in Dali village and had invented a system for extermonating locust. he was a Cypriot - Italian landowner and member of Garnet Wolseley's first Legislative Counsil. The lonf row of buildings includes a number of arches, kiosks and balconies under flat and sloping tiled roofs. Figures working on the pier and men struggling in a boat add life to the picture. Ellis's own attitudes are reflected in his interior of a traditional Cypriot's Home. The servants, Greek figures, subservient and awkward, attend to the animals. The artist, dressed in white and wearing a pith helmet (an insignia of the ruling class), ascends the stairs to the upper quarters. (page 178 fig 208)

Watercolour painting At the Marina, Larnaca, 1878, (that part around the port was better known as Scala, and the rest of the town was about half to one mile away) gives the impression of a Near Eastern port. This could be any small harbour in Asia Minor, Egypt or Syria. What is interesting, and what renders it an oriental picture, is the carefully chosen detailing, that has been included and what omitted. the costumes are Ottoman and exotic, which presented only half the truth. There is no doubt that such costumes were seen all over Cyprus and in countryside for many years to come, but by the end of the nineteenth century Larnaca was Europeanised to the degree that at least part of its population appeared in European clothes. There are no women on the seafront, even if it appears to be busy market day. The only woman to be seen is seated at her window high above the road, at safe distance for men. she is wearing the white robes of the Moslem tradition, even though her face uncovered and she is seated by wide open window - pointing it the relaxation of the Islamic rules even on women attire. (severis 2000 page 176 fig 206)

The character on the right named by the painter Donisthorpe Donne as Ibrahim Mustafa is in the company of a black man with the same rank (denoted by the insignia on their sleeves)

A Turkish Cypriot Worker is wearing white pantaloons (vraka), a blue and white striped shirt and a multicoloured sash or belt.

A few years later, in 1881, an amateur painter, Colonel Benjamin Donisthorpe Alsop Donne, paint­ed two watercolours presenting ‘A Greek Peasant on the Limassol Works’ and ‘A Turkish Cypriot Worker’, respectively, as if he wanted to urge us to compare the appearance of the two. Both wear their traditional cos­tume, each part of which is accurate­ly depicted: the Greek (shown from the front) wears a black waistcoat crossed over the chest and with two oblique rows of buttons, over a white shirt, black baggy trou­sers (vráka), which meet the black top boots under the knee, a crimson broad sash at the waist and a crimson fez with a striped headscarf round it.

The watercolor depicts ‘George Savas chypri­ote colonel au service Grec’. He is represented in a half-length likeness and as a military officer, he wears an uniform and bears two pistols and a sword around his waist. The richly decorated waistcoat with shoulder flaps resembles the waistcoat called férmeli or férmeni (Turk. fermene), which was worn by Greeks, especially the fighters in the Greek War of Independence, but was also known in Cyprus (see above condemnation of this garment by the Church in 1797). On his head he wears a cap.