Page 50 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
painted in the Komnenian period, the painters of the Palaiologan period often do not use the red margins to separate the depictions of the Gospel scenes. Rather, these scenes are often rendered within a sequence of a continuous narrative. For example, image 41 shows the scene of Deposition and the scene of Lamentation incorporated within a single com- position at Vatopaidi – where the figure of Christ, and that of the Virgin, appear twice within a unified composition (as do other figures of the two scenes).
Notwithstanding the vast number of skilful anonymous painters of the Palaiologan period, based on the preserved examples of painting, it can be said that the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century was marked by the works of ‘Manuel Panselinos,’33 Mihail Astrapas, Eutychios (Mihail’s assistant) and George Kallierges. Their painting style is commonly termed as Macedonian school, and relatively recently Euthymios Tsi- garidas named this style the Thessalonian school, as Thessaloniki was the centre from which this style sprang.34 These artists completed the best of their works approximately in the period between 1290 and 1320/21. Of course, there are preserved frescoes of the similar style which have been completed by anonymous artists after 1321, such as the frescoes at the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, completed between 1328 and 1334. Also, as we shall discuss later in this chapter, the frescoes at the church of Chora in Constantinople, which were completed by unknown artists approximately between 1315 and 1320, are of the highest quality and significance.
Special attention should be given to ‘Manuel Panselinos,’ who is by far the most influ- ential painter of the period at question and one of the most important artists in the entire history of Byzantine art. The name ‘Manuel Panselinos’ is most probably a pseudonym ascribed to the painter much after his life. His influence on other painters of the Thessa- loniki workshops is believed to have significantly contributed to the strong momentum of this style of painting – a style which was to inspire the works of Byzantine painters even well after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Panselinos decorated the church of Protaton on Mount Athos (c.1290), which preserves the most significant body of his work. He also rendered the majority of frescoes in the small chapel of St Euthymios in Thessaloniki (1302/3). Other frescoes, such as those in the outer narthex of the Vatopaidi katholikon (1312), as well as a fragment of a fresco at The Great Lavra, are also attributed to him (or his atelier). Although Panselinos also painted portable icons, his style is essen- tially that of a monumental wall-painter. The first known reference to his work dates to the early 18th century and is written by a hieromonk and himself a painter, Dionysius of
33 ‘Manuel Panselinos’ is most likely a pseudonym ascribed to this painter much after his life.
34 Euthymios N. Tsigaridas, Manuel Panselinos: From the Holy Church of Protaton (Hagioritiki Estia, 2003), 23.
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