Introduction to the Byzantine Portable Icons of the Monastery

The Byzantine icons of the Monastery are representative examples of the high spirituality and artistic flourishing during the Komnenian and Palaiologoi periods. The icons that have survived from the Komnenian era are few and are limited in time to the second half of the 12th century. A particularly interesting epistyle of the iconostasis of the catholicon with thirteen surviving subjects is representative. From the first half of the 13th century, there is a curious lack of portable icons. On the contrary, the icons of Palaiologoi art are numerous and of exceptional artistic quality. Some of those from the first Palaiologos period (1261-1328), which are mainly iconostasis icons depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saints Demetrius and George, seem to come from workshops in Constantinople and Thessaloniki, while two others are attributed to the workshop of the artist of Protatus (around 1290) Manuel Panselinos. The icons from the second Palaiologos period (1348-1453) present a greater thematic variety, as in terms of use they are iconostasis icons, icons of worship or private worship and altarpieces. Some of them are even associated, based on epigraphic data, with figures of the Byzantine court, such as Anna Philanthropine and the despot Demetrius Palaiologos.