As mentioned before it is not possible to see any paintings of late 11th and 12th centuries. The religious centers were abandoned and only a certain degree of activity is seen at the beginning of the 13th century. Nearly 10% of the paintings are of this date. The frescoes of this period are of low-quality craftsmanship, the colors being exaggerated. They show crude copies of earlier frescoes. The traditional art of Cappadocia was forgotten and relations with other parts of the Empire were very loose. The painters could go no further than just imitating the 11th-century art badly. An example is the 40 Martyrs Church in $ahinefendi (1216- 1217). On the northern nave, 40 Martyrs of Sebaste are seen naked on the ice. Although 11th century Byzantine Art traditions are kept the figures are crude and clumsy. The bodies are painted in a strange and unnatural way with expressions of the old style. The scene as a whole is an unsuccessful imitation of the ones in Goreme.
The church with the latest paintings is the St. George church in Ihlara 1283-1295. After this, there was a long break in the art of mural painting in Cappadocia until the 19th century.