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CΗRIST PANTOCRATOR

(In the imprinted anthivolon or drawing the representation is in reverse in relation to the work that was the model.)
110 x 68 cm.
Late 19th century
Industrial paper

The drawing comprises seven sheets of paper of the same size glued together. It is extensively damaged and has been glued to later handmade paper.

Christ Pantocrator, with short beard and hair hanging symmetrically on the shoulders, is depicted in frontal pose to the hips. He blesses and holds and open gospel book with blank pages. At the level of the head are the ligatures IZ XS (Jesus Christ), in capital letters and in reverse.

The portrait type of Christ, with principal feature the arrangement of the hair, which from a central parting falls freely onto the shoulders, originates from the iconography of the Holy Mandylion.¹. From the eighteenth century, in combination with the closed gesture of blessing, the open gospel book and the chiton with overfold held in place by a cloth girdle, this type was established in Neo-Russian art² and spread throughout the Balkans for rendering the Pantocrator.³ However, in this cartoon Christ, although in half-body, is rendered as if standing, a pose that seems to come from a large composition with a full-bodied figure of the Lord. This variation, known in Greece, prevailed mainly in Epirus, as is apparent from the considerable number of works in churches in Ioannina and its environs, among them the despotic icons in the Philanthropinon and St Panteleemon monasteries on the island in Lake Pambotis,⁴ those in the metropolitan church of St Athanasios and the side chapel of St Nicholas (1863), the icons in St Nicholas at Kipoi, in St George at Negades, in St Nicholas at Tselepovo,⁵ and two by painters from Chioniades, by Anastasios in the church of the Saviour at Ano Pedina (1884) and by Sokratis Matthaios in the church of the Transfiguration at Votonosi (1900).⁶ A comparable dissemination is also observed in Athonite engravings.⁷ This cartoon displays close affinity, in the organization of the composition, as well as, primarily, in the facial features of the figure, the arrangement of the drapery, in the type of lettering, and in individual details, with the despotic icon of Christ Pantocrator, on the iconostasis in the church of St George at Negades.⁸ The flat, sweetish expression and schematized features of the figure, the disproportion between body and head, and the typology of the letters all point to a late nineteenth-century craftsman, maybe from Chioniades, who followed the currents of the day. The mediocre drawing, possibly copied from an engraving, was intended for the production of despotic icons, as attested by its large dimensions and confirmed by its direct dependence on the icon in Negades.

A. Katselaki

1 Grabar 1931, 5-37, pls 1-II.
2 Μπαλτογιάννη 1986, pls‚ 212, 213.
3 Θησαυροί του Αγίου Όρους 1997, nos 2. 110 (I. Tavlakis). Εικόνες Ρουμανίας 1993, nos 60, 67. Vinjua Caca 2002, figs 9, 13. Κεφαλονιά ΙΙ, 1994, figs 256, 303. Εικόνες Αλβανίας 2006, no. 68 (E.Drakopoulou).
4 Μοναστήρια Νήσου Ιωαννίνων 1993, fig. 103.
5 Unpublished.
6 Σιούλης‚ 2004, 22-23.
7 Papastratos 1990, vol 1, nos 1-5.
8 Unpublished