Handwriting Might Have Identified Famous Byzantine Artist

01Crime-solving methods might have provided an answer to an ancient mystery, the identity of a leading Byzantine painter.

02The artist Giotto, who lived in Italy about 700 years ago, is often considered the father of Western painting.

03But at the same time that Giotto lived, Manuel Pensilinos was equally important to a different tradition, the art of Byzantium.

04The art of Byzantium can be found in Eastern Orthodox churches across Greece, Serbia, and other Orthodox countries.

05Byzantium is an ancient name for the modern city of Istanbul.

06Nothing is known of Pensilinos' life.

07Historians now believe Pensilinos was a nickname.

08They now suspect his real name was likely Ioannis Astrapas.

09He was from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

10Work said to be made by Pensilinos, from the late 1200s and early 1300s, is considered the finest produced in the Byzantine Empire.

11That ancient empire covered parts of Europe and Asia.

12It lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until the capture of the capital Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

13Art historians had long suspected that Pensilinos could have been a nickname, or a pseudonym, for a member of the Macedonian school of painting in Thessaloniki.

14The name means full moon in Greek.

15Recent research by a Greek monk and a language expert have linked Pensilinos with Macedonian school painter Astrapas.

16Now handwriting expert Christina Soteragoulou has found new evidence.

17She matched lettering on a document thought to be by Astrapas with writing on a church painting at Mount Athos in northern Greece.

18The Protaton church painting has been considered Pensilinos' best work.

19Father Kosmas Simonopetritus is a former administrator at Mount Athos.

20The religious community is where the Protaton church stands.

21He said Soteragoulou's and his own research clearly prove Pensilinos' real identity.

22Pensilinos was a real person, and the name was just the nickname by which Ioannis Astrapas became known, Simonopetritus told the Associated Press, or AP.

23Konstantinos Vafiades is a professor of Byzantine art who was not involved in the research.

24Vafiades said he found strong points in the nickname theory and naming Astrapas as the true artist.

25However, he added that it appeared more than one painter had created the art at the Protaton church.

26I agree with attributing part of the paintings to Ioannis Astrapas, Vafiades said, But again there remains much ground for future research into that person, because other Mount Athos monuments from the same period have not yet been sufficiently published.

27Pensilinos and his fellow artists at the time are linked with a rebirth in Eastern Orthodox art.

28Their work brought back forms and skills inherited from ancient times.

29Facial expressions got a deeper humanity, and greater attention was paid to proportion and depth of field in composition.

30Simonopetritus said Astrapas was an extremely gifted painter with deep knowledge.

31He added that Astrapas mixed the ancient, classical world with Orthodox Byzantine spirituality.

32The trail started with linking Astrapas to the person who wrote a book called the Marcian Codex, GR 516, from the early 1300s.

33The book contains artwork and is handwritten in Greek.

34Among the painted pictures, or illustrations, is a full moon.

35For me, that was the main proof, Simonopetritus said.

36With a name found for the person who produced the manuscript, the next step was to compare it to the writing on the painting in the Protaton church that has been traditionally linked with Pensilinos.

37Mrs.

38Sotiragolu, who is a handwriting expert, filled in that blank, Simonopetritus said.

39But women have for more than 1,000 years been banned from entering the Mount Athos religious community.

40I was forced to study the Protato paintings based on photographs, Sotiragolu told the AP.

41Sotiragolu works as a court expert who examines handwriting in criminal cases.

42The first clue came from the Greek letter Phi, the English F, in the Marcian Codex manuscript.

43It's a Phi that stands out and is similar in both the manuscript and the Protato painting, she said.

44Matches also followed with other letters, T, with its proportions, which is bigger, covering the other letters, and is topped with a curve, the proportions of the K.

45But when the Phi was revealed, the code of the writing was broken, and the job became much easier, she added.

46Father Cosmas said that during his duties on Mount Athos, he attended services at the Protaton Church every day.

47That's where my desire was born, to explore the mystery around the name and the identity of Panselinus, he said, adding that he thinks the artist has now gotten his true identity.

48I'm John Russell.