The wall-paintings of the Protaton Church revisited

Abstract

During the course of conservation work on the wall-paintings in the Protaton Church on Mount Athos a number of letters were found that can form the name ‘Eutychios’ or ‘Eutychiou’, the name of one of the two painters who decorated the Peribleptos Church in Ohrid. This discovery has overturned the findings of previous research and also poses new questions. The answers to these questions constitute the aim of the present article. More specifically, the wall-paintings in the Protaton are attributed to two painters, Michael Astrapas and the painter of the Chapel of St. Euthymios in Thessalonica, and are dated to between 1309 and 1311/1312. Since there are many problematic points in Astrapas’ artistic development, this article reexamines certain ensembles of wall-paintings, and particularly that of the Bogorodica Ljeviška Church, as a key to interpreting and solving the problem of ‘Michael Astrapas’.

Keywords

• mount athos
• protaton
• bogorodica ljeviška
• michael astrapas
• byzantine painting