It’s an unusual investigative duo: a court handwriting expert and a Greek Orthodox monk. Christina Sotirakoglou and Father Cosmas Simonopetritis think they have solved a centuries-old puzzle. Her crime-solving techniques and his research may have uncovered the true identity of a leading Byzantine painter.
The artist known as Manuel Panselinos created Orthodox religious art. He worked during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Some of his works include wall frescoes in the Protato Church in Mount Athos, a monastic community.
But historians know almost nothing about his life. Scholars now believe Panselinos was a nickname or pen name. It’s Greek for “full moon.” Artists’ signatures were not common at the time. Panselinos left none himself.
Sotirakoglou and Father Cosmas argue the artist’s real name was likely Ioannis Astrapas. They think he was from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. He lived in the Byzantine Empire, which straddled Europe and Asia. That empire endured from the fifth century A.D. to 1453.
Byzantine art ornaments churches across Greece, Serbia, and other largely Orthodox countries. It often features flattened designs and elongated, large-eyed saints.
The trail of clues to uncover this artist’s identity started with research. Details linked Astrapas with the artist and scholar who wrote and illustrated Marcian Codex GR 516. That’s an early 14th-century Greek handwritten text. It covers subjects from astronomy to music theory. Among the painted illustrations was a full Moon.
“That was the main proof,” Father Cosmas says.
The next step was to check the manuscript’s style against writing on the Protato painting.
There was one problem. The Greek Orthodox community of 20 monasteries has been off limits to women since it was set up more than 1,000 years ago.
“I was forced to study the Protato paintings based on photographs,” says Sotirakoglou.
“[The work] was very difficult, because the writing on the wall paintings is in capital letters, and the painters subdued their personal handwriting to conform” with the traditional format, the handwriting expert says. The Marcian Codex, on the other hand, “is written in very small lower-case letters.”
The next clue came from the Greek letter Phi, the English F.
“It’s a Phi that stands out, and is similar” in both the manuscript and the painting, she says. “Matches also followed with other letters.” The Ts are topped with curves. The proportions of the Ks in both the paintings and manuscript were the same.
“But when the Phi was revealed,” Sotirakoglou adds, “the code of the writing was broken and the job became much easier.”
Why? God gives us the curiosity, ability, and skills to investigate mysteries from history.
