The work of two painters can be distinguished in the church of the Virgin Mary in Alikambos. The main church, according to the dedicatory inscription, is decorated by Ioannis Pagomenos. Pagomenos painted over 30 churches in West Crete over a period of about 40 years, including that of St Nicholas in Maza.
The painters executed their works during the summer months, from May to October, so the painting of one of the 30 churches associated with Pagomenos would not have taken more than six months. The choice of weather conditions was due to the lower humidity, which meant that the frescoes could be worked on more easily. We see from his works that Pagomenos was often aided by an assistant, so the time required would have been even less. We can therefore suppose that this painter in high demand only went home during the winter months, his workload imposing a seasonal, nomadic lifestyle.
Surviving contracts of the Venetian period provide useful information on the painter’s profession and way of life. For example, the patron often paid for the food of the painters, who were responsible in turn for supplying the members of their workshop. It was not uncommon for the painter to cover the cost of materials, provided that they were of good quality, and there are also cases of artists asking the patron to pay for the scaffolding, for instance. Painters of the early Venetian period would probably have earned almost twice as much as an unskilled labourer.
The profession was often hereditary, kept within the family. Painters often had apprentices, whom they had to support as well as teach. The painters themselves had considerable theological knowledge and appear to have enjoyed a fair amount of freedom in their choice of subject and rendition. However, their commissioners also often indicated the more specific subjects they wished to have depicted in the churches they endowed.

The Route of Byzantine Art