2.117 St Panteleimon
16th and 18th c.
Protaton
Wood, egg tempera, 148 x 63.5 x 3 cm
This is a very fine work in which the face and hands have been repainted. The healer saint (O AΓIOC ΠANTEΛEHMΩN) is portrayed frontally and full-length, holding a medical instrument and vessel in his hands. He stands with his legs apart and is clothed in luxurious bejewelled garments. Especially impressive is the fire-red cloak, buckled high on the chest, which falls in undulating folds towards the rear. It is adorned outside with black trefoils and inside with delicate gold tendrils. Similar designs in black cover the gold edging both of the long green chiton and the cloak, in the case of the latter only on one side. Such devices can also be found in the katholikon of the Stavronikita Monastery (1546) in the figures of warrior and healer saints (Chatzidakis 1986, plates 146-150).