The shocking moment when, raised on the scaffolding of the Old Monastery of Taxiarchon Aegialia, she discovered the only living portrait of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaiologos, the “Marbled King”, archaeologist – Byzantineologist Anastasia Koumousi described to ERT.

“We are working with the conservators at the old monastery of the Taxiarchon Monastery… And at some point from below – because it is a mural that is about five meters high – I could see the two-headed eagles. I climbed the scaffolding and then I saw him. I saw him at a distance of 30 centimeters.”

With her 40 years of experience as an archaeologist and knowing the historical background, it did not take her long to realize that it was not a hagiography, but “an earthly form”, a portrait.

“I was looking at him, I was looking at him and I knew who I was looking at and I knew what had been found at that moment, at 5 meters high a mural which has been burned repeatedly. That’s why the colors are washed out. But his beauty, his serenity, his look…” she said.

He also noted that “for an archaeologist it is a shocking experience at the moment of such a discovery”.

“It’s not a simple find. It goes beyond archaeological achievements it has national significance for us. He is the last emperor of Byzantium in a unique monumental painting ensemble” he said characteristically. And he added: “Don’t forget, it’s after Pantanassa. He the painter who came from Mystras and knew him – I’m sure – that’s why he has captured him with such success, he copies the Pantanassa of Mystras”.

According to the YPPO, it is the last chronologically preserved portrait of an emperor in Byzantine monumental painting and the only portrait of Constantine Palaiologos, contemporary with his short reign (January 6, 1449-May 29, 1453).

As a portrait it is not idealistic or standardized but it is about authentic portraita, which accurately reproduces the physiognomic characteristics of the last Byzantine emperor.

“He is an earthly figure, a mature man, with a thin face and individual features, who exudes calmness and gentleness,” the statement says.

In Mystras, where the painter who illustrated the second layer of the Catholicos of the Monastery probably came from, Constantine Palaiologos had lived five years as a despot, before being crowned emperor.

The fresco depicts the figure of a mature man wearing imperial ‘insignia’ (luxurious cord over pale sackcloth, dialithic crown) and holding a cross sceptre. The gold-embroidered purple of the mantle is decorated with medallions, on which are inscribed two-headed eagles with a crown between their heads, insignia of the members of the Palaiologos family. The presence of the two-headed eagles on the figure’s garment, combined with the rest of the insignia, constituted an illustrated message that allowed the viewer to unmistakably identify the man with an emperor.