Centuries-Old Mystery of Byzantine Master Painter “Panselinos” Solved?
A centuries-long mystery surrounding the identity of a highly influential Byzantine painter may finally be solved, thanks to a novel application of crime-solving techniques, The Associated Press reports.
The artist, known only as Manuel Panselinos, a contemporary of Giotto and a key figure in a largely overlooked artistic tradition, has been the subject of intense speculation. Now, new research suggests that “Panselinos” was not a name, but a nickname—and that the man behind the moniker was likely Ioannis Astrapas, a painter from Thessaloniki.
Panselinos’ work, dating from the late 13th and early 14th centuries, is considered among the finest of the Byzantine Empire, a civilization that spanned Europe and Asia from the fall of Rome until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. While Byzantine art is typically characterized by its stylized and formalistic representations of religious figures, Panselinos’ paintings stand out for their remarkable infusion of human emotion and realism. His work demonstrated a revolutionary attention to proportion, depth, and nuanced facial expressions — a significant departure from the prevailing artistic conventions.
Art historians long suspected that “Panselinos,” meaning “full moon” in Greek, was a nickname, possibly associated with the Macedonian School of painting in Thessaloniki. This theory gained traction with recent research by Father Cosmas Simonopetritis, a Greek monk and scholar, who linked “Panselinos” to the painter Astrapas.
The crucial breakthrough came from Christina Sotirakoglou, a court handwriting expert. By comparing the lettering style in a manuscript tentatively attributed to Astrapas – the Marcian Codex GR 516, an early 14th-century text illustrated with, notably, a full moon – with the lettering style on a church painting in northern Greece (long attributed to Panselinos), Sotirakoglou found a significant stylistic match. This analysis focused on the distinctive form of the Greek letter Phi (Φ), which resembles the English letter F.
Father Cosmas, who during his time as a senior administrator at Mount Athos (home to the Protato church where the painting resides) attended daily services, stated that this research “clearly proves” Panselinos’ true identity as Ioannis Astrapas. While Professor Constantinos Vafiadis, a Byzantine art expert, agrees with the Astrapas connection and the nickname theory, he notes that the Protato project might have involved multiple artists and that more research is needed.
