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St MENAS

Drawing. Pencil and brownish black gouache
90.5 x 64cm.
First half of 19th century
Handmade paper

The drawing, in poor condition with damage, holes and stains, comprises four pieces of handmade paper, three of them sewn together and the fourth glued.

St Menas, in military attire, armed with sword, spear and shield, is represented in formal pose to the hips, as if sitting, and has the features of a mature man.

The Egyptian saint is depicted sporadically in Byzantine painting as amartyr,¹ while from Palaiologan times he appears as a soldier² Both types, of the martyr³ and the soldier, remained in use in the Post-Byzantine period. As a soldier, St Menas was initially represented standing straight upright and with hauteur,⁴ and later on horseback,⁵ which type occurs subsequently in a series of Asia Minor icons⁶ and engravings.⁷

Common elements in both variations are the mantle fastened loosely on the chest or shoulder and the facial features of a mature man with white hair and beard. These are reproduced conscientiously in the drawing, while the seated pose most probably derives from that of the horseman. An Athonite engraving with the saint on horseback in comparable movements and with similar portrait type corroborates this hypothesis (mid-19th century).⁸
The robust figure of the saint in the drawing has a mellow expression that emanates monumentality, dignity and the ethos of a mature and experienced military officer of high rank. The noble bearing, the well-drawn features, the calm steady gaze, the balanced pose and the gestures echo an excellent model which the painter reproduces with facility and sound knowledge. The treatment of the fluid drapery, with the deep overfolds picked out in brownish red gouache, is also encountered in three drawings in the Giannoulis Collection.⁹ The common provenance of the drawings from the some collection originally permits their attribution to the hand of the same talented artist.

A. Katselaki

1 Chatzidakis-Bacharas 1982, 70-74.
2 Αχειμάστου-Ποταμιάνου 1983, 104.
3 Τούρτα 1991, 152-153, pls 22a, 91a. Κωνστάντιος  2001, 108, pl. 125a.
4 Αχειμάστου-Ποταμιάνου 1983, 104, pl 66a. Χατζηδάκης‚ 1986, pl. 162. Millet 1927, pl. 203.1. Τούρτα 1991, pl. 96a.
5 Καρακατσάνη 1980, nos 45, 363.
6 Yilmaz 2000, nos 17, 35, 78, 77. Τσιγάρας 2005, no. 26.
7 Papastratos 1990, vol. I, nos 282, 283.
8 Papastratos 1990, vol. I, no. 281.
9 Εκ Χιονιάδων 2004, nos 78, 89, 114 (N.Toutos).