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Some recently discovered frescoes in the church of Protothronos of Naxos

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Ζίας, Νίκος

Since last year’s restoration, work on frescoes in the church of Proto- thronos in Chalki Naxos (fig. 1 ) were begun and are still in progress.The church is of the so-called « transitional » inscribed-cross type, in which the dome is supported by walls. Onthe later Western wall there is an inscription on the original Berna architrave which we have deciphered as the date 6460 from the Creation of the world i.e. 1052 A.D. (fig. 2).The church has frescoes in the dome, the conchard the NW chapel. The frescoes in the dome were in a very bad condition and for better conservation it was necessary to remove the paintings from the wall. The work has been studied and executed by the restorer St. Baltoyannis. Under the layer of the known frescoes others were discovered (fig. 4 ). But we have not yet completed these, and they will be published later.We have also discovered, under the later plaster of the South vault ( gallery ), frescoes of the Annunciation (fig. 5 ), the Visit of Maria to Elisabeth, the Presentation to the Temple (figs. 6-10), the FortyMartyrs. From these we present here some examples to show their high quality. From the head of Joseph from the Presentation (fig. 9 ) we can see the quality of the painter.We suggest that the style of these murals falls into the 11th century as do the frescoes in Karabas Kilise, ( 1060/1 ), Panaghia Chalkeon ( 1029 ) in Thessaloniki, St. Lucas ( Phokis ). We believe, also, that the date of the inscription corresponds with these frescoes and that the painter belonged to a great artistic centre such as that of the Capital.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Χριστιανικές αρχαιότητες

τοιχογραφίες, Νάξος

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