During the period of Ottoman rule, sculpture in stone or marble saw a continuation of the canons of Byzantine art, and was mainly an ecclesiastical phenomenon. From the 18th century onwards, however, secular works, such as fountains, furnish characteristic examples of Greek popular sculpture.
Reliefs adorned lintels, door-frames and fanlights, or took the form of built-in slabs with inscriptions. Floral, pagan and magic symbols acquired not only a decorative, but also a talismanic character, and are directly related to ecclesiastical art.
Inside the houses, reliefs also adorned the hearths. Stone-carving was practised by stone-masons, the 'pelekanoi', who were members of the builders' guilds of Epirus and western Macedonia, and travelled in the Balkans and mainland Greece.
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