Athos Holy Mount

Athonite Paper Icons	4.6 The Monastery of Simonopetra 20 May 1868 Simonopetra Monastery Engraving Dimensions of copperplate: 78 x 57.3 cm Engraved on Mount Athos Engraver: Ioannis (Kaldis) of Lesvos
	Inscriptions: Lower left in Greek and Slavonic 'This new picture of the Holy, Venerable, Imperial, Patriarchal and Stauropegial Cenobitic Monastery of Simonos Petra on Mount Athos, dedicated to the Nativity of Christ, was commissioned by the monastery during the abbacy of the Hieromonk Neophytos, in memory of its blessed benefactor John Ugljesa, King of Serbia and all the 'Romans' [Balkan Orthodox Christians], on the Holy Mountain of Athos, 20 May 1868'. On the decorative frame, bottom: 'Eχαλκοχαράχθη Διά χειρος Iωάννου κω(νσταντίνου) λεσβίου' (Engraved by the hand of Ioannis Constantinos of Lesvos). The many-storied monastery dominates the central composition with its bulk, built as it is on top of a huge rock rooted in the sea. Around it are pictured the main features of the mountain landscape surrounding the monastery: the mill, the aquaduct, the coppersmith's workshop, the cemetery, the garden, the shrine, the arsenal, the Kellion of the Theologian, the saint's cave and St Demetrios. The central composition is crowned by pictures of the founder St Simon, the Nativity of Christ, to which the katholikon is dedicated, and the monastery's second patron saint, Mary Magdalene. The other three sides are decorated with ten scenes from the life of St Simon. The work is notable for precision of detail in the central representation, while the border scenes, though rather cluttering the whole, are simply drawn and faithfully depict events from the life of the saint, thus helping the pilgrim to experience the history of the monastery with his own eyes. This is the second of three engravings of Simonopetra, by the well-known engraver Ioannis Kaldis, to whom 22 engravings are attributed for the period 1858-78. A note in the Simonopetra accounts mentions that the engraving was done on a design by the painter Dionysios. In the following decades the accounts contain many references to successive commissions to Athonite printers for reprinting this engraving, as well as other paper icons, the copperplates of which belonged to the monastery. These records help us to understand the ways in which these engravings were produced and distributed.
	Bibliography: Papastratou 1986, no. 499. Papastratou 1987, pp. 159-69. Ioustinos 1994, p. 246.
	H.I.S.
	Index of exhibits of Monastery of Simonopetra 19th century

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