Nikolaos Bonovas, The evolution of the 18th-century tendency to return to Palaeologan painting
My investigation of the revival of the Palaeologan painting style in the 18th century began twenty years ago. The phenomenon originated in the copying of prototypes executed by the painter Manuel Panselinos, a practice encouraged by Dionysios of Fourna in his Manual of Painting (1728-1733). This led to the development and wide use of a portrait prototype with fixed iconographic and stylistic features: a fleshy face, round eyes with tear sacs beneath them, long curving eyebrows, expressive wrinkles, curling locks and tufted hair, all with outlines and pink cheeks. This prototype was employed mainly in frontally portrayed figures of dominant saints in multi-figure representations in frescoes and portable icons with one or two saints. A simplified use of the prototype may be observed in multifigure compositions. The new prototype was developed in the workshops of painter monks on Mount Athos in the 18th century and was adopted by secular painters in Thessaloniki at a time when the city's economy was thriving and against a background of long historical bonds between the city and the Athonite state. One characteristic of the evolution of this prototype in the religious painting of the city is its combination with a schematised floral ornament on the frames of portable icons. Also striking is the application of the prototype in representations on the rear surfaces oflarge despotic icons of the 14th century. Works featuring the new prototype are to be found on Athos and in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia.
