Mount Athos - The Protaton

he church of the Koimesis (Dormition of the Virgin) at Karyes on Mount Athos is known as the Protaton, after the Protos ("first"), the spiritual leader of the monastic community of Mount Athos, the headquarters of which are situated at Karyes. The church was built in the first half of the 10th century in the type of the three-aisled timber-roofed basilica, but in the course of the centuries it underwent several alterations. Athonite legend ascribes the decoration of the katholikon to a famous painter from Thessalonike, Manuel Panselinos, on whom there are no other sources of information. Whether Panselinos truly existed or was a legendary figure is a pertinent question, but not a vital one as regards the classification and evaluation of this monumental ensemble. The great resemblance of its frescoes to those of the chapel of St Euthymios (1303) in the basilica of St Demetrios in Thessalonike and to the work of the painters Eutychios and Michael Astrapas in St Kliment (former Virgin Peribleptos) of Ohrid, confirms the view that they are all creations of the same workshop of Thessalonike. The themes decorating the church are depicted in four successive zones. Full-length figures of young military saints, martyrs, prophets and hermits, who exude serenity and intense spirituality, occupy the lower and the higher zones. In the two intermediate zones are represented successively, without separating borders, Biblical scenes following one another like a continuous painted frieze. The compositions are monumental in their conception. The robust figures, in which are boldly rendered the volume of the forms and the ample folds of the garments, dominate the three-dimensional architectural setting. The monumental ensemble of the Protaton, which is dated to the last decade of the 13th century, is characterised as the culminating work of the cubic or volume style, which reached its zenith at the end of the 13th century.