Cretan School does not monopolize the hagiographic activity of the era. In parts of North-western Greece a parallel "secular" artistic tendency appears, more lively, colourful and full of movement, open to western (postgothic) influences, often financed by local lords. It appears that this school is a continuation of the "Last Macedonian School" of the end of the 15th century.

The subjects of the North-western School are rather original and contain references to national and religious ideas. We often see martyrs who have martyred and been proclaimed just a few years earlier. On the wall paintings of the Monastery of Saint Nicolas of Filanthropinon, at the Isle of Ioannina (three phases, 1530, 1542 and 1560), among the persecutors of Saint Stefan the New Martyr are armoured western knights. Similar is the style at the nave of the Monastery Diliou (1543) and the Monastery Eleoussis, also at the Isle of Ioannina.

The third hagiographic period at the Philanthropinon Monastery is attributed to the Thebean painters Frangos and George Kontaris. The narthex of the Varlaam Monastery at Meteora is also attributed to them. The most important artist of the School, from Thebes, too, is Frangos Katelanos. To him is attributed the decoration of the nave of the Varlaam Monastery at Meteora (1548), the Saint Nicolas chapel of the nave of the Great Laura at Mount Athos (1560), a part of the decoration of the Filanthropinon Monastery of the Monastery of Saint Nikanor near Grevena and of the Virgin Mary of Rassiotissa at Kastoria.

In the works by Katelanos, a moving crowd of people and the accumulation of buildings create a feeling of dense and turbulent surroundings. Bright colour, especially red, are dominant and light and shade alternate. Katelanos does not attempt to hide his acquaintance with contemporary Italian painting, but he does not adopt its subjects. Overall he shows a tendency towards baroque.

The School of North-western Greece influences deeply the iconographers in Greece and the Balkans during all the 16th century (St. Georges at Baniani -1549- near Scopje, St. Zaccharias at Kastoria, Monastery of St. John Galataki -1566- at Euboiea), and even during the 17th century (Monastery of St. John Arma -1637- at Euboiea). Its impact is often combined with the influence of the Cretan School, so that in the future in many cases both Schools coexist in the same composition.

Finally, apart from the mainstream, we have to mention the hagiographer Onoufrios, an artist with a personal style. Onoufrios is the creator of a School in Central Albania and West Macedonia, that is, in the region of the Archdiocese of Achris (Agioi Apostoloi at Kastoria -1547-, Agia Paraskevi Valsch -1544).