The portrait of the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos was discovered in the Catholicon of the Old Monastery of Taxiarches in Aigialeia, just 15 km far from Aigio.
As Ministry of Culture of Greece announced today (12/12/24), during the conservation work of the Monastery’s frescoes, archaeologist Dr. Anastasia Koumousi, identified in the second layer of frescoes which is safely dated to the mid-15th century, the portrait of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, which was created during his short reign (January 6, 1449-May 29, 1453).
The fresco depicts the figure of a mature man wearing imperial regalia (a luxurious cord over a light-colored sack, a diademed crown) and holding a cruciform scepter. His gold-embroidered purple mantle is decorated with medals, on which are inscribed double-headed eagles with a crown between their heads, the insignia of the members of the Palaiologos family.
The presence of the double-headed eagles on the figure’s garment, in combination with the other insignia, constituted an illustrated message that allowed the viewer to unequivocally identify the man as an emperor.
The emperor depicted is a historical figure and is identified with Constantine XI Palaiologos , brother of the sponsors of the renovation of the Monastery, the despots Demetrios and Thomas. It is the last chronologically surviving portrait of an emperor in Byzantine monumental painting and the only portrait of Constantine Palaiologos, contemporary with his brief reign (6 January 1449-29 May 1453).
As a portrait it is not idealistic or standardized. It is an authentic portrait , which accurately renders the physiognomic features of the last Byzantine emperor. He is an earthly figure, a mature man, with a delicate face and individualized features, who exudes calm and nobility. In Mystras, where the painter who illustrated the second layer of the Catholicos probably came from, Constantine Palaiologos had lived for five years as despot, before being crowned emperor .
The imperial portrait is connected to the generous donation of his brothers to the monastery, known from written sources, after the end of the first civil war between them (1449–1450), which was achieved through the “arbitration” of Constantine, as reported by Laonikos Chalkokondylis.