The Expression of the Imperial Idea of a Romanian Ruler in the Katholikon of the Great Lavra Monastery 1

displaying a donor portrait in the katholikon of the Great Lavra monastery on Mount Athos, known as the portrait of the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes. The author taking into consideration several iconographic elements as well as the new data that came to light in the course of restoration, rejects the possibility of the representation of the Byzantine emperor and identifi es the painted image with Wallachian Prince Vlad Vintilă (1532–1535). This is the most representative example of a Romanian ruler portrayed in fresco that excellently refl ects the imperial idea.

The subject of this paper is a recently cleaned fresco displaying a donor portrait in the katholikon of the Great Lavra monastery on Mount Athos, known as the portrait of the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes.The author taking into consideration several iconographic elements as well as the new data that came to light in the course of restoration, rejects the possibility of the representation of the Byzantine emperor and identifi es the painted image with Wallachian Prince Vlad Vintilă (1532-1535).This is the most representative example of a Romanian ruler portrayed in fresco that excellently refl ects the imperial idea.
In 1535, the iconographic programme in the katholikon of the Great Lavra frescoed by Theophanes, the renowned Cretan painter, was enriched with the portrait of the monastery's fi rst benefactor, Nikephoros Phokas (963-969). 2he portrait is located in the nave, on the northern side of the southwestern pier beneath the dome, next to the fi gure of the martyr St Mercurios.The Byzantine emperor, donned in a ceremonial sakkos with a loros, is depicted, half-turned towards the altar, extending scrolled chrysobulls (Figure 1).There is an aureole around his head on which he wears a gold, dome-like crown, resembling the stemma of the Paleologues.The inscription on his portrait is signed Nikephoros Phokas, emperor and ktetor of the holy monastery: " ." Exactly opposite the portrait of Nikephoros, beside the fi gure of St Christopher, on the southern side of the northwestern pier beneath the dome, is the painted image of another donor of the Great Lavra.In hitherto bibliography, this portrait has been mentioned as that of the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes. 3However, after the fresco was recently cleaned and the composition's original form was uncovered, during the general restoration of the mural decoration in the katholikon, 4 elements appeared that incontestably refute the identifi cation of the represented image with Tzimiskes.But, before we turn to presenting the new data that came to light in the course of restoration, it would be worthwhile to go back to the portrait in the state in which it was before cleaning and draw attention to those iconographic elements on the basis of which doubts arise regarding the eventual identifi cation of the portrayed fi gure with that of the Byzantine ruler.
Half-turned towards the altar, the patron holds in both hands a detailed model of the katholikon (Figure 2). 5 As in the portrait of Phokas, one may notice a semi-circular band that frames the upper part of the fi gure.The triangular surfaces between the square frame of the representation and the aforesaid band are decorated with a beautiful and intricate Καλοκύρης, Άθως.Θέµατα αρχαιολογίας και τέχνης, Athens 1963, pl.20/β; Chatzidakis, op.cit., 314, fi g. 116; Dionisopulos, Ktitorski portreti, 8-12, fi g. 1-3.Besides the naos, the decoration of the main church also included the painting of the narthex, cf.P. Mylonas, Le plan initial du catholikon de la Grande-Lavra au Mont Athos et la génèse du type catholikon athonite, CahArch 32 (1984), 105.The present-day narthex (liti) is decorated with frescoes carried out in 1854 (Mylonas, op.cit., 106).As for the katholikon building, it was founded, as we know, by St Athanasios the Athonite in the year 963, with the fi nancial assistance of the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phokas.On the foundation and the architecture of the katholikon of the Great Lavra, cf.Mylonas, op.cit., 89-98; Th.Steppan, Die Athos-Lavra und der triconchale Kuppelnaos in der byzantinischen Architektur, München 1995, 98-115; Π. Μυλωνάς, Άτλας του Άθωνος, τ.Β΄, Wasmuth 2000, 70-73. 3In spite of the fact that the portrait has not been examined so far, bearing in mind the inscription at the top of the image, researchers identifi ed the depicted fi gure with Tzimiskes [Millet, Monuments de l'Athos, pl.117/1, 139/1; Chatzidakis, op.cit., fi g. 115; M. Garidis, La peinture murale dans le monde orthodoxe après la chute de Byzance (1450-1600) et dans les pays sous domination étrangère, Athènes 1989, 151-152].The successor of Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzimiskes (969-976), became the second patron of the Great Lavra, verifying all the contributions by his predecessor with a chrysobull and awarding the monastery an income of 488 gold coins, cf.∆.Παπαχρυσάνθου, Ο αθωνικός µοναχισµός.Αρχές και οργάνωση, Athens 1992, 259-260. 4Conservation works in the katholikon of the Great Lavra were taken over by the 10 th Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities in Thessaloniki. 5In the model of the katholikon, we notice the large dome of the naos, two smaller domes above the lateral chapels and between the latter, a narthex with three openings.In front of the narthex and the parekklesia, there is an exonarthex depicted with fi ve openings along the entire length of the western side of the church.However, as demonstrated by Mylonas, who studied ornamental pattern. 6In contrast to the Byzantine emperor, this donor has no aureole.He wears a shirt and a caftan over it with a maniakis and a loros.One can only see the sleeves of the purple shirt with perivrachionia and epimanikia.The caftan is of heavy material, loose-fi tting and richly ornamented with a golden curling vine forming rhombic patterns, whilst in the centre of each fold is a lily.The purple velvet maniakis is decorated with embroidered, fl oral designs.The loros is thrown over the left hand of the fi gure, crossed over on the breast and decorated with precious stones and pearls.On his head, the donor wears a high, open, gold crown with serrated ends shaped like lilies.The inscription at the top of the representation says that this is a portrait of the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes, the second ktetor of the Great Lavra: " ." Here, we see a mature man.His hair is long, chestnut-coloured and wavy.His thin, curling moustaches are of the same colour but the beard contains reddish lights.On the broad, rounded face we notice large eyes beneath thick, regular eyebrows, and a regularly shaped nose.
One should note that the basic garment of the fi gure, the caftan, at the time when the portrait was done, was the typical garment worn by the Wallachian and Moldavian rulers.It is a robe of oriental origin, open down the entire length in front, with a clasp at the throat and long sleeves falling to the ankles, with slits beneath the armpits.In Balkan painting, it already appeares before the Ottoman occupation in the fi rst half of the XV century. 7In the Wallachian and Moldavian territories, princesses, the nobility and their wives wore the caftan from the XV century, whilst around the mid-XVI century, it became part of the attire of the Romanian rulers, replacing the earlier upper cloak-like garment with broad sleeves. 8As the caftan was also worn by the Turks, this change in the clothing of the voevods was considered to express the symbolic role of the caftan in the ceremony of investiture, in the context of the Porte's confi rmation of the Romanian rulers' enthronement, and confi rmation of Ottoman authority. 9e should also note that the donor, whom we described, was painted wearing an open, serrated crown decorated at the tips with lilies.This refers to the characteristic type of crown of the Wallachian and Moldavian rulers that we can already notice on their portraits in the XIV century. 10We know the architecture of the katholikon, in the XVI century not only the narthex but also the open exonarthex with arcades were reduced to the area between the two lateral chapels.Cf.Mylonas, Le plan initial, 95, fi g. 6, b; idem, Η αρχική µορφή του καθολικού της Μεγίστης Λαύρας.Αναθεώρηση ορισµένων θεωριών για την προέλευση του τύπου, Αρχαιολογία 1 (1981), 59-60.The current external appearance of the katholikon is due to the reconstruction of the old narthex, done in 1814 (inscription in Millet-Pargoire-Petit, op.cit., 108, № 335), when the new expanded narthex (liti), covered over with a dome, replaced the original double narthex, and when the entire area encompassing the narthex, the parekklesia and the exonarthex were covered with a joint roof.In 1899, a glass partition was installed on the colonnade in front of the western facade of the church.Cf.Mylonas, Le plan initial, 91. 6A fi ne intricate ornament decorates the relevant surface of the fresco-icon with the image of St John the Forerunner in the narthex of the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery (cf.Μ. Χατζηδάκης, Ο κρητικός ζωγράφος Θεοφάνης.Η τελευταία φάση της τέχνης του στις τοιχογραφίες της Ιεράς Μονής Σταυρονικήτα, Mount Athos 1986, 55, fi g. 1, 5).It is a vine, olive--green with white accents on the edges of the leaves, which develops on a background of the same colour, albeit of a slightly lighter shade.Everything points to woodcarving as the model of this iconographic solution.In the same narthex, on the right hand of the entrance to the naos, is a standing fi gure of the Mother of God with Christ at her breast (Χατζηδάκης, op.cit., fi g. 1, 6).Above the Virgin is an ornament with a shell and towers of the late Gothic style in a three-dimensional perspective painted in the square frame of the composition.M. Chatzidakis mentions that such ornamental motives at the top of the representation refl ect the painted or relief icons, originating from Venice (Χατζηδάκης, op.cit., 75).A semi-circular band encloses one more portrait executed by the painter Theophanes.This one portrays the fi gure of the Metropolitan of Larissa Dionysios, in the narthex of the katholikon of the monastery of St Nicholas Anapavsas on Meteora (1527), cf.Chatzidakis, Recherches, fi g. 113. 7J. Kovačević, Srednjovekovna nošnja balkanskih Slovena, Belgrade 1953, 67; B. Cvetković, Prilog proučavanju vizantijskog dvorskog kostima -γρανάτζα, λαπάτζας, ZRVI 34 (1995), 152-153 (the author differentiates the caftan from the granatsa, the medieval court robe of Byzantium and the Balkans, which was of Assyrian origin and usually overlapped over the breast, with long, hanging sleeves that were sometimes tucked into the belt). 8Cf. C. Nicolescu, Costumul de curte în Ţările Române (sec.XIV-XVIII), Bucharest 1970, 14-16; eadem, Broderie profane de tradition byzantine en Roumanie, in: Actes du XIVe Congrès international des études byzantines, t.III, Bucharest 1971, 396; eadem, Les insignes du pouvoir.Contribution à l'histoire du cérémonial de cour roumain, RESEE XV (1977), № 2, 245-246. 9Nicolescu, Costumul de curte, 15-16; eadem, Broderie profane, 396. 10 It is believed that in the widespread use of this crown with lilies in the Romanian territories, one can trace the infl uence of the Hungarian and Polish kings, of whom the Romanian rulers were vassals in the XIV and XV cen- that the lily was a popular emblem in western Europe, most probably a product of the cult of Christ and the Mother of God and that it was used as an ornament on the rims of the crowns and sceptres of the western rulers as a symbol of virginity and chastity. 11For the Christian world that was under Turkish domination, the serrated crown with lilies became the insignia of a righteous Christian ruler and defender of the true faith. 12n the other hand, the fact that the second donor is depicted without a nimbus (as opposed to Nikephoros Phokas, who is painted with one) leads us to conclude that this is more likely to be the image of a post-Byzantine ruler, the contemporary of the painting in the katholikon, than the portrait of a Byzantine emperor. 13However else is one to interpret the ap-  pearance of the important insignia of the Byzantine emperors, such as the loros, 14 as well as other items of imperial wear, the maniakis, perivrachionia and epimanikia.We cannot give a reliable answer to this question before determining the identity of the represented image.In that connection, the old proskinitarion of the Great Lavra written by the skevophylax of the monastery Makarios Trigonis, in 1757, offers some interesting information.Makarios mentions that across the way from the icons behind the throne of the hegoumenos, on the left side (meaning exactly opposite the south-western pier beneath the dome, where the portrait of Nikephoros Phokas is located), there are two more "old and exquisite icons" of which the more beautiful is " [a votive offering of the memorable Lord of Ugro-Wallachia Vintilă Voevod, above which (i.e. the icon) he himself is depicted in prayer, holding the church in his hands]". 15Therefore, there is no doubt that before us is the portrait of the Wallachian Prince Vlad Vintilă (reigned 1532-1535).The recent conservation of the donor's portrait verifi es this identifi cation and, at the same time, indicates in what measure later painters in the monastery intervened on the original picture.
During restoration, besides cleaning the frescoes of the soot that had accumulated over several hundred years, the later addition of a beard on the face of the patron was removed and, what is most interesting, the fi gure of a child, wearing a red garment, with hands extended in prayer towards the altar (Figures 3, 4), emerged on the right side of the donor from beneath a blue layer of colour that was used to paint a background.In the inscription written above its head, we read: " ".This is the Greek version of the name of the younger son of Vintilă, Dragichi.Unfortunately, the original inscription next to the fi gure of the donor was completely erased as the result of a series of later attempts to give it a different attribution by writing the name of John Tzimiskes as the second ktetor.It is evident, however, that the only remnant of the initial inscription is the abbreviation " " which appeared at the top of the composition.This is the abbreviated form of the name " ", which should not be considered in the given case as an abbreviation of the Christian name of Tzimiskes but as the honorary title that usually preceded the name of the Romanian princes in offi cial documents and inscriptions. 16ecifi c type of royal ideology based on the legal rather than on the religious nature of power, cf.D. I. Mureșan, Autour de l'élément politique du culte de sainte Parascève la Jeune en Moldavie, in: L'empereur hagiographe -Culte des saints et monarchie byzantine et post-byzantine.Actes des colloques internationaux "L'empereur hagiographe" (13-14 mars 2000) et "Reliques et miracles" (1-2 novembre 2000) tenus au New Europe College, Bucharest 2001, 262-264. 14On the loros, cf.J. Verpeaux, Pseudo-Kodinos: Traité des offi ces, Paris 1966, 199-201, 256, 264; I. Spatharakis, The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, Leiden 1976, 263; Marjanović-Dušanić, op.cit., 128 (the author emphasises the complex symbolism of the loros connected both to the military status of the medieval rulers and the divine origins of their power, and to the resurrection of Christ). 15Μακαρίου Κυδωνέως του Τριγώνη, Προσκυνητάριον της βασιλικής και σεβασµίας µονής Μεγίστης Αγίας Λαύρας του Αγίου Αθανασίου του εν τω Άθω, 1772, 17.The information given by Trigonis is also confi rmed by G. Tsioran, who mentions that in memory of his numerous good deeds, Vlad Vintilă was painted among the patrons of the Lavra, with his son Dragichi, in a posture of prayer and with a model of the church in his hands (cf.Γ. Τσιοράν, Σχέσεις των Ρουµανικών Χωρών µετά του Άθω και δη των Μονών Κουτλουµουσίου, Λαύρας, ∆οχειαρίου και Αγίου Παντελεήµονος ή των Ρώσων, Athens 1938, 129).Romanian researchers only mention the portrait of Vintilă and his son in the katholikon of the Lavra [cf.St. Nicolaescu, Domnia lui Vlad Ventilă Vodă de la Slatina în lumina unor noui documente istorice inedite 1532--1535, Arhivele Olteniei 83-85 (1936), 3; M. Păcurariu, in: Istoria Bisericii ortodoxe române I, Bucharest 1980, 600].P. Năsturel considers the existence of Vintilă's portrait in the Lavra to be the result of confusing the portraits of the same prince represented on two podeas, which the generous Wallachian ruler donated to the Koutloumousiou monastery (P.Năsturel, Le Mont Athos et les Roumains.Recherches sur leurs relations du milieu du XIVe siècle à 1654, Roma 1986, 77, n. 14).On these podeas, v. infra. 16At issue is a diplomatic formulation (Ιω or , which the Romanian rulers adopted in the XIV century from the Bulgarian and Serbian sov- After removing the later interventions, that is, the beard, added to the face of the donor, the lower part of a round face could clearly be seen with the typically thin, drooping moustaches that were the customary traits of Wallachian princes in the XVI century that we notice on the majority of their portraits painted in this period (Figure 5).As in the face of Nikephoros Phokas, the modelling relies on a dark incarnate with the tendency of executing the facial features with greater plasticity.In order to avoid powerful chiaroscuro contrasts, a system of gentle gradation was used from lighter to darker surfaces.One can clearly discern the wrinkles on the forehead above the eyebrows, executed with two prominent semi-circular lines. 17The hair is carefully and naturalistically executed by means of fi ne strokes, in a shade of chestnut.However, one can notice that in spite of the plasticity and the avoidance of superfi cial workmanship, the features demonstrate a tendency towards decorativeness and idealisation.The calm posture of the patron and his exalted expression, with eyes gazing upwards, contribute to this.
And now, if we wish to compare Vintilă's portrait in the Lavra with other representations of this prince, we can mention the example of two decorative embroideries, depicting what have so far been considered the only surviving portraits of Vintilă.This refers to two podeas that the generous voevod and his wife Rada, donated to Koutloumousiou and are kept in this monastery, today. 18Vlad Vintilă (J&ë Vintil$ Voevod), wearing a caftan with a serrated crown on his head, the Lady Rada (g`ë da Rada) and their son, Dragichi (J&ë Drygqj Voevod), are shown, kneeling in prayer beneath the Tree of Life, where the bust of Christ dominates on one podea (Figure 6), and on the other, the bust of the Mother of God Oranta with the Christ at her breast (Figure 7).In spite of the fact that on both embroidered podeas the physiognomy of the portrayed Vintilă is completely schematised because of the technique itself, the portraits show the same basic features as we perceive in the portrait in the Lavra: long, wavy hair, a round face with thin, drooping moustaches and a regular nose (Figures 8 and 9).
Unfortunately, the frescoed portraits of Vintilă that were once in the katholikon of Koutloumousiou 19 and in the narthex of the katholikon of the Argeș monastery, Neagoe Basarab's endowment in Wallachia, no longer exist today.On the basis of a drawing of the original arrangement of the iconographic themes in the katholikon of Argeș, made during the restoration works in 1875, when all the frescoes that had survived till then were removed from the walls, K. Dumitrescu established that Vintilă's portrait was located on the western wall near the south-western corner of the narthex.It was part of a large gallery of portraits of the Wallachian rulers painted in this space in the period between 1526 and 1577.C. Dumitrescu considers that Vintilă had his predecessor, Vlad the Drowned (1530-1532), painted next to his own portrait -both men belonged to the Drakulești dynasty -to stress the idea of the continuity of power. 20Thanks to the valuable drawings by the painter G. Tatarescu, today, in the Bucharest Museum of Art, we discover that Vlad Vintilă was painted face-on, wearing a richly decorated caftan with a large fur collar (Figure 10). 21His arms were clasped at the level of his belt, in contrast to his predecessor, Vlad the Drowned, who was painted with his arms folded across his chest, that is to say, in a position that usually conveys an eschatological meaning, signalling the possibility that it was a posthumous ereigns.At the beginning, the particle Ιω was most probably an abbreviated form of the Slav vocative "v$ J(mä) OE(tyca)", which the copyists of the Bulgarian, Serbian, Wallachian and Moldavian offi ces confused with the abbreviation of the Greek name .For more details about the origin and the meaning of the particle Ιω, v. M. Tadin, L'origine et la signifi cation de la particule dans le titre honorifi que des princes de Bulgarie, de Serbie (méridionale), de Valachie et de Moldavie, Cyrillomethodianum 4 (1977), 172-196 (with earlier literature). 17As for the technique of Theophanes' painting, the use of semi-circular lines of a decorative nature, with which the wrinkles on the forehead are emphasised, is extremely frequent and remarked mostly on the faces of the saints, cf.Χατζηδάκης, Ο κρητικός ζωγράφος, 97-101. 18With regard to this embroidery, cf.Nicolaescu, op.cit., 3-6, fi g. on pages  portrait. 22Apart from Tatarescu, the supervisor of restoration works dealing with the XIX century, A. Lecomte de Noüy, 23 also drew a copy of the destroyed fresco (Figure 11).It should be stressed that the basic features of Vintilă, in other words, the round face, the regular nose, the thin, drooping moustaches, are also to be seen on these drawings.The Great Lavra belongs in the category of Romanian royal patronage linked with Athos, which R. Kreceanu, a researcher on Romanian donors of the Mount Athos, describes as "national", meaning that the Lavra was the object of permanent patronal activity regardless of dynasties and political convictions. 24After Koutloumousiou, it was the second monastery on the Athos that received donations from the Wallachian rulers.Between 1372 and 1377, Vladislav I commissioned a large icon of St Athanasios the Athonite to be decorated with a rich silver frame on the rim of which the prince is depicted in the costume of western knights with his wife Ana. 25 At the beginning of the XVI century, Radu the Great consolidated the monastery, awarding it a steady, annual income in silver. 26Neagoe Basarab, too, continued to grant this annual fi nancial aid.As we learn from the Romanian version of the Life of St Niphon, 27 he repaired the lead roof of the katholikon, renovated the skevophylakion and endowed the monastery with liturgical vessels of gold or silver. 28In the same biography there is also mention of three items of embroidery that the Wallachian ruler gave to the monastery.During his visit to the Lavra in 1982, in the monastery treasury, P. Năsturel had the opportunity to see a 22 For more on the deceased appearing with folded arms as an eschatological symbol, cf. A. Semoglou, Contribution à l'étude du portrait funéraire dans le monde byzantin (14 e -16 e siècle), Zograf 24 (1995), 5-11. 23Cf.Nicolaescu, op.cit., fi g. on page 2; Chihaia, op.cit., fi g. 14 on page 302.Dumitresku does not discard the possibility that the portraits of Vlad the Drowned and Vlad Vintilă were painted at the initiative of the voevod Radu Paisie (1535-1545), as a tribute to his deceased predecessors, who were the patrons of Argeș, but she rejects Chihaia's view, according to which, as we mentioned (n.20), both portraits came into being at the behest of the prince Pătrașku the Kind, cf.Dumitrescu, Fondateurs et iconographie, 28-30; eadem, Pictura murală din Ţara Românească, 47, n. 25. 24 27 The Life of St Niphon was translated into the Romanian language in the XVII century, cf.P. Năsturel, Recherches sur les rédactions gréco--roumaines de la "Vie de saint Niphon II, patriarche de Constantinople", RESEE V (1967), № 1-2, 41-75. 28Năsturel, Le Mont Athos, 75.podea ornamented with a large two-headed eagle, on which there was an inscription in Slavonic embroidered in large let-ters on the upper and lower part of the veil, mentioning the name of the Prince of Ugro-Wallachia Neagoe, with the date 7024 (1515/1516). 29But why did the 16 th century Wallachian rulers pay so much attention to the material enhancement of the Great Lavra?
In the second half of the XV century, after the defeat of Byzantium, as the only Orthodox Christian states in south--eastern Europe, the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia undertook to fi ght the Ottomans.Their rulers appear as the legitimate successors of the Byzantine emperors and Slavic rulers of the Balkans, and they became the principal patrons of many monasteries, particularly those on the Mount Athos. 30eviving the medieval image of the sovereign as the chosen one of God, the Romanian rulers were to seek for themselves the imperial legacy of Byzantium in its most ecumenical form. 31Their ideology was based on the "empire in exile" doctrine, according to which the Orthodox Christian peoples, driven into exile by heathens, would never be able to survive without an emperor-liberator. 32According to Nastase, who is the main scholar to study the imperial notion cultivated by the Romanian rulers, despite the fact that the Romanian princes were vassals and bound in some degree of allegiance to the Porte, to recognise the sovereignty of the sultan, especially from the second half of the XV century, they never renounced the imperial concept of their power. 33lthough the monarchical ideology of the Wallachian and Moldavian princes during the Turkocracy only had a "crypto-imperial" nature, due to the Ottoman threat, the Eastern Church consolidated this policy to arm itself in preparation for the spiritual battle against the enemy. 34Within the scope of this process, the Romanian princes developed close ties with Greek circles in Constantinople and especially with the ecumenical patriarch, who crowned them according to the old imperial ceremony, as was appropriate for the legitimate successors of the Vasilevs. 35While emulating rulers by divine right from the past, the Wallachian and Moldavian princes also engaged in signifi cant patronal activities in the renowned Or-29 Năsturel, op.cit., 75-76.The Lavra treasury houses yet another embroidered podea dating from the time of Neagoe Basarab, depicting the standing fi gure of the Mother of God with the Christ at her breast, which the wife of Neagoe, Despina, and his mother, Donka, presented to the monastery, that is to say, to the parekklesion of the Virgin, cf.Năsturel, op.cit., 76. 30 Năsturel, Considérations sur l'idée impériale, 403; D. Nastase, L'idée impériale dans les Pays Roumains et "le crypto-empire chrétien"sous la domination ottomane.État et importance du problème, Σύµµεικτα 4 (1981), 235. 31Nastase, op.cit., 235.The question of the monarchial ideology of the Wallachian and Moldavian sovereigns was the preoccupation of many Romanian researchers.N. Iorga was the fi rst to discuss the imperial idea as the fundamental characteristic of the Romanian rulers in the post-By zantine period [N.Iorga, Το Βυζάντιο µετά το Βυζάντιο (translation: Γ. Καράς), Athens 1989, 132-162], according to which, however, the imperial nature of princely power can be interpreted only as an aspiration towards internal autonomy within the frame of the Romanian territories.P. Năsturel (Considérations sur l'idée impériale) and especially D. Nastase (L'héritage impérial byzantin dans l'art et l'histoire des pays roumains, Milano 1976; L'idée impériale dans les Pays Roumains) gave the fullest explanation of the complex problem of the Romanian rulers' imperial idea, revealing that the Romanian sovereigns had already begun consciously seeking the Orthodox Christian imperial title with its ecumenical prerogatives by the second half of the XIV century; for more about the imperial title of the Romanian princes v., also, A. Pippidi, Tradiţia politică bizantină în ţările române în secolele XVI-XVIII, Bucharest 1983, 18-27. 32Nastase, L'héritage impérial byzantin, 1-2; idem, L'idée impériale dans les Pays Roumains, 235 [according to Nastase, this ideology originated from the period of the possession of Constantinople by the Latins (1204--1261), when the Byzantines fostered the hope regarding the liberation of the conquered territories based on the idea of the survival of the empire in the free, outlying areas]. 33Nastase, L'héritage impérial byzantin, 15; idem, L'idée impériale dans les Pays Roumains, 236.For more details about the Romanians' economic obligations towards the Turks cf.V. Panaite, Custom in the 16th-18th Centuries Ottoman-Romanian Relationship (starting points for a historiographical debate), RESEE XXXI (1993), 171-185.The Romanian principalities enjoyed a special, privileged status of political autonomy under the Ottoman Empire, which the Porte described as a status of "holy reconciliation" or "holy alliance".According to this agreement, the principalities retained the right to elect their voevod from among the local aristocracy (at least till the middle of the XVI century), territorial sovereignty, the possibility of diplomatic representation in the Porte and the right to use their natural resources.However, they were not permitted to sign treaties with other countries but were forced to offer their military assistance to the Ottomans in the latter's European military expeditions.Cf   36 This is precisely the reason why, immediately after his accession to the throne of Wallachia, Vlad Vintilă wanted to link his patronage with the monasteries on the Mount Athos, fi rst with Koutloumousiou, the monastery traditionally protected by the Wallachian princes, and then with the symbol of Byzantium's imperial policy, the Great Lavra, 37 which the voevod himself, as we shall see, describes as the imperial monastery in his chrysobull.One should note that in this ruler's time, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople re-established links with the church of Ugro-Wallachia, asserting its dominant role in the Orthodox Christian world. 38lad Vintilă from Slatina, son of the renowned voivoda Radu the Great, reigned from the month of October 1532 till June 12 th 1535, when he was murdered as the result of a conspiracy by the Wallachian boyars against him. 39In the brief period of his rule he managed to develop a notable patronal activity on the Mount Athos.Apart from Koutloumousiou and the Great Lavra, his patronage expanded to the other monasteries on Athos, such as Vatopedi, Hilandar, Xeropotamou and Docheiariou. 40Three months after he came to the throne of Wallachia, on January 12 th 1533, Vintilă issued a chrysobull to the Lavra, in which he mentioned that he was deeply touched by the great diffi culties of the monasteries on the Mount Athos that were deprived of their patrons and neglected, and especially by the diffi culties of the Lavra. 41Therefore he promised his assistance to the "revered and imperial monastery called the Great Lavra, which was at the head of the whole of the Mount Athos and where the remains of St Athanasios were interred" considering that "the shrines had fallen into the possession of infi dels, who abused them". 42For that reason Vlad and his son Mircea (we assume that this refers to Vintilă's elder son from the voevod's fi rst marriage to Zamfi ra), 43 see-ing that the "monks of the Mount Athos travelled to the West and the East, in search of the patronage of Orthodox Christian emperors and rulers", and decided to grant the Lavra a steady, annual income of 10,000 aspra, and 1,000 more for covering the travelling expenses of the monks, who would come to Wallachia to seek charity. 44In return for his generosity, Vlad requested the brotherhood of the Lavra to record his name and those of his family in the triptych of ktetors 45 and, in addition, to hold a weekly liturgy for them and mention their names during the distribution of drink in the refectory. 46Moreover, the prince required his successors, whether they originated from his lineage or not, to renew this donation so that they too would have the assistance of the Mother of God, St Athanasios and all the saints at the Last Judgement.The text of the chrysobull ends with a prayer to the Virgin. 4742 Năsturel, op.cit., 77. 43Vintilă was married twice, fi rst to the princess Zamfi ra and then to the princess Rada with whom he had his younger son Dragichi, cf.Nicolaescu, op.cit., 2-3. 44Năsturel, op.cit., 77. 45This refers to the memorial book recording the names of the patrons to be mentioned during services, cf.V. Marković, Ktitori, njihove dužnosti i prava, Prilozi za književnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor 5 (1925), 116-117. 46Năsturel, op.cit., 77.Of course, this does not refer to a senseless request from Vintilă.All ktetors had the right to commemoration during the divine liturgy and it is considered to have been one of their most important ritual rights.For more details about this, cf. S. Troicki, Ktitorsko pravo u Vizantiji i u Nemanjićkoj Srbiji, Glas SКА СLXVIII (1935), 120-122; Marković, op.cit., 116-119 (the author also writes about the right of the main donor of a monastery, who requests the brotherhood to hold a service for the peace of his soul each year on the day of his death). 47Năsturel, op.cit., 77.

Fig. 9. Portrait of Vlad Vintilă (detail of fi gure 7)
Romanian researchers often mention the representation of Neagoe Basarab from the narthex of the katholikon in the Argeș monastery as the most representative example of a Romanian prince portrayed in fresco that excellently refl ects the imperial idea (Figure 12). 48Depicted as a donor with Despina Milica and their children in an absolutely frontal pose and in hieratic immobility, Neagoe wears a wide-sleeved cloak decorated with two-headed eagles.From this aspect, however, the portrait of Vlad Vintilă in the katholikon in the Great Lavra seems to be even more interesting.This is the only surviving representation portraying a Romanian voevod with the clearly defi ned monarchical insignia of the Byzantine emperors and the medieval Balkan sovereigns, i. e. with the loros, maniakis, perivrachionia and epimanikia. 49Relying on the models of the medieval royal tradition, Vintilă dons the imperial insignia with the intention of clearly demonstrating his supreme position in the Orthodox Christian world.As the new Nikephoros Phokas -the identifi cation that is undoubtedly facilitated by the presence of Nikephoros' fi gure positioned opposite Vintilă's portrait -he appears not only as the legitimate upholder of the monarchical and patronal tradition of the founder of the Great Lavra, as the symbol of the Byzantine imperial idea, but also as the defender of Christianity in the struggle against the heathens.This latter idea is both emphasised with the loros, crossed over the patron's breast, the symbol of the cruciferous nature of the Vasilevs' power50 and with the fi gure of St Christopher who, as we noted in the beginning, is depicted beside the portrait of Vintilă.
St Christopher is portrayed carrying the Christ-child on his shoulder and gripping a blossoming staff, a type that is of western origin, which the painter Theophanes repeats in the katholikon of St Nicholas Anapavsas in the Meteora and in the main church of Stavronikita. 51The oldest known examples of St Christopher, the Christ Bearer in Eastern Christian art -with some iconographic differences in relation to the corresponding western type -date from the middle of the XIV century and originate in Serbian mural painting [Lesnovo (1349), Konče (1366-1371)]. 52On them, St Christopher is interpreted as a martyr, the pillar of the Christ of truth, who bears the message of the victory of goodness and light. 53herefore, if the presence of the portrait of the Byzantine emperor, Nikephoros Phokas, indicates the imperial conception of the power of Vintilă, the fi gure of St Christopher, as the spiritual prototype, highlights the pan-Orthodox aspect of this power that envisages the fi nal victory of the Christian world with the help of the new pillar of the Orthodox Christian faith -the Romanian ruler. 54From the iconographic aspect, the comparative order of the image of St Christopher, the Christ-bearer, and Vlad Vintilă with his son, contributes to this parallelism (St Christopher: the pillar of the Christ of truth -Vintilă: the pillar of the Orthodox Christian faith) by means of repeating the same motive, the fundamental icono- graphic axis of which consists of the fi gures of a man and a child.If, in Koutloumousiou, Vlad appears to be a disturbed ruler, who wishes to lay emphasis on the legitimacy of his authority and his dynasty 55 because of the unstable political situation in his own country, in the Great Lavra he appears with the self-assurance of a powerful monarch.
From what has been said till now, there is no doubt that the Wallachian prince contributed to the painting of the katholikon of the Lavra, given that part of the iconographic programme expresses a particular political and religious ideology, composing the image of the post-byzantine Romanian orthodox ruler.On the other hand, the painted model of the katholikon testifi es to his participation in the more general renewal of the church that became necessary after the great earthquake in 1526. 56earing in mind the previous observation, it is reasonable to question why the name of Vlad Vintilă is not mentioned in the dedicatory inscription from 1535 related to the painting of the katholikon or in some other inscription, which would refer to the renewal of the central church after the earthquake.Unfortunately, we do not possess data that would enable us to give a reliable answer to this question. 5755 Vlad Vintilă, who was known to be a member of the Drakulești -one of two rival branches that occupied the throne of Wallachia -commissioned portraits to be done of his father, Radu the Great, and Mircea the Old, as the progenitor of the family and common ancestor of the Drakulești, on the northern and more representative facade of the Koutloumousiou katholikon.This family procession also included the renowned member of the Danești, Neagoe Basarab, whose representation should be comprehended as the expression of the great respect the new patron had for the most important Wallachian prince of his time and the principal restorer of Koutloumousiou.It is a donor-dynastic picture of the Romanian type, of the kind we encounter in the narthex of the main church of the Argeș monastery, which refl ects the exalted social position of the donor, his aspirations to become the legitimate successor of the patronal activities of his predecessors, and the need of the Romanian voevod to emphasise the legitimacy of his power in a period of intense internal strife in Wallachia.Therefore, we believe that the donor portraits of the Wallachian princes in Koutloumousiou were painted before the fi nal victory of Vintilă over the rebellious boyars in 1534.Cf.Dionisopulos, op.cit., 148. 56Then the wooden roof of the refectory and the central dome of the katholikon of the Lavra were demolished, cf.Μ. Γεδεών, Υπέρ της ιστορίας της εν Αγίω Όρει Μεγίστης του Αγίου Αθανασίου Λαύρας, ΕΑ 22 (1902), 240. 57According to the testimony of John Comnenos, there was a Greek inscription carved on the lead roof of the porch, above the narthex of the main church in the Lavra.This Greek doctor believed it referred to the renewal of the church by the Wallachian prince Neagoe Basarab ("και την Εκκλησίαν εσκέπασεν [ο Νεάγουλος] όλην µε µολυβένιαις πλάκαις, καθώς φαίνεται γεγραµµένον εµπρός εις την µεγάλην πύλην του Νάρθηκος, επάνω εις αυτό το µολύβι της µεγάλης καµάρας", Ι. Κοµνηνός, Προσκυνητάριον του Aγίου Όρους του Άθωνος, Venice 1864 2 , 13).Vasilij Grigorovič Barskij later copied this inscription but mistakenly wrote in Cyrillic letters the year of renewal that was carved in the numerical value of Greek letters.According to him, the inscription read: " : CLD (934)" (V.Grigorovich-Barskiĭ, Vtoroe poseshchenie sviatoĭ Afonskoĭ gory, S.-Petersburg 1887, 10).Millet, Pargoire and Petit published the inscription, which was most probably destroyed during the great restoration of the katholikon in 1814, replacing the mistaken letter sign CLD with the date ΖΛ∆ (7034 = 1525/1526), whereas, on the other hand, they identifi ed the Wallachian prince of the inscription with Vladislav III (1523-1525, with intermissions) (Millet-Pargoire-Petit, op.cit., 108, № 334).The identifi cation of the Wallachian ruler confused the Romanian researchers.D. Nastase rejected Millet's solution and, relying particularly on the imperial nature of the inscription, presented the view that the inscription mentioned two princes, Vladislav I (1364 -around 1377) and most probably Radu V from Afumaţi (1522-1529, with intermissions) (Nastase, "Βοεβόδας Ο γγροβλαχίας κα α τοκράτωρ Ρωµαίων", 5-12).The same researcher also noted another error in the copy of Barskij, such as placing the particle Iω after the name of the voevod, which in Roma-nian original documents always precedes the name of the ruler (Nastase, op.cit., 3). A. Pippidi, on the other hand, stressing the important errors of the inscription, suggests a different reading: ∆ράκουλου: ΐ ΄ (6970 = 1462).Pippidi believes that the beginning of the inscription Βλαδισλάος ∆ράκουλου contains the name of the renowned Wallachian voevod of the XV century Vlad Ţepeș (1456-1462), also known as Vlad Drakul (Pippidi, op.cit., 156, n. 63).In our view, Pippidi's interpretation signifi cantly alters the content of the initial inscription.Given that the inscription's meaning was questionable, it is surprising that so far Romanian researchers have not also reviewed the possibility that it mentioned the name of Vlad Vintilă, the son of Radu the Great (for the fi rst part of the inscription, we propose that it reads as follows: ). Various opinions on the content of this inscription -although hypothetical for the most part -were The only thing we can assume is that the Metropolitan of Veria Neophytos and Vlad Vintilă both deserve credit for the fresco-decoration of the katholikon, and that after the sudden death of the latter, Neophytos took over the task of painting the church.Consequently, only his name is mentioned in the dedicatory inscription. 58The other possibility is that the monks deliberately erased Vintilă's name and, at some later time, renewed this inscription, given that the same thing happened with the inscription accompanying the portrait of the Wallachian voevod.Most probably, Dragichi's fi gure was also painted over on the same occasion.It is hard to determine in what period these signifi cant changes were made to the donor composition.However, given that Makarios Trigonis from the Great Lavra mentions Vintilă's portrait in his proskinitarion from 1757 and includes the ruler's title of the Wallachian patron (" ") 59 -obviously repeating part of the contents of the original inscription -one may assert that these changes came about after the middle of the 18 th century, most probably in the 19 th century.Indeed, a similar occurrence was noticed in Koutloumousiou as well, where the brotherhood also identifi ed the Romanian prince and ktetor of the monastery with the Byzantine emperor, changing the original inscription accompanying the prince's portrait. 60This act most pro bably refl ected the wish of the monks on the Mount Athos in the 19 th century to consolidate the traditions that referred to the foundation of the monastery by the revered and glorious Byzantine emperors. 61herefore, it is no coincidence that in the inscription on the donor composition above the tomb, dating from 1854, in the narthex of the Pantokrator's katholikon, one of the founders of the monastery and a Byzantine dignitary, the great stratopedarches Alexios, was identifi ed with the great vasilevs Alexios Comnenos. 62so presented by P. Năsturel, Mélanges roumano-athonites (1), Anuarul Institutului de Istorie A. D. Xenopol XXVII (1990), 1-3. 58For the content of the inscription v. supra, n. 2. 59 Cf. supra. 60In the inscription beside the fi gure of Mircea the Old, today the only visible portrait on the facade of the northern lateral conch of the Koutloumousiou katholikon, the name of Aleksios I Comnenos is inscribed, cf.Dionisopulos, op.cit., 223-224.Три ме се ца по сле сту па ња на пре сто Вла шке, 12. ја ну а ра 1533.го ди не, вој во да Влад Вин ти ла (1532-1535) издао је Ве ли кој ла ври хри со ву љу у ко јој на во ди да је ду бо ко дир нут ве ли ким те шко ћа ма све то гор ских ма на сти ра, ли шених ктитора и за пу ште них.За то он обе ћа ва по моћ "по штова ном и цар ском ма на сти ру на зва ном Ве ли ка ла вра, ко ји је на че лу це ло куп не Све те Го ре и у ко јем ле же мо шти све тог Ата на си ја Атон ског", с об зи ром на то да су "све ти ли шта па ла у по сед не вер ни ка ко ји су их зло у по тре би ли".Вин тила је од лу чио да до де ли Ла ври стал ни го ди шњи при ход од 10.000 аспри и још 1.000 за по кри ва ње тро шко ва пу то ва ња мо на ха ко ји би до ла зи ли у Вла шку по ми ло сти њу.Зауз врат вој во да тра жи од брат ства Ла вре да упи ше у трип тих ктито ра име на чла но ва ње го ве по ро ди це и, уз то, да им по је је дан пут не де љно слу жбу и по ми њe њи хо ва име на то ком по де ле пи ћа у тр пе за ри ји.Не дав но чи шће ње војводиног кти тор ског пор тре та у ка то ли ко ну Ла вре -за ко ји се сматра ло да је пор трет ви зан тиј ског ца ра Јо ва на Ци ми ски ја -по ка зу је да је Вин ти лин при лог био знат но ве ћи.

Fig. 12 .
Fig. 12. Neagoe Basarab with Despina-Militsa and their children.Monastery of Argeș, narthex -today in the Bucharest Museum of Art (after Nicolescu, Costumul de curte în Ţările Române) The Expression of the Imperial Idea of a Romanian Ruler in the Katholikon of the Great Lavra Monastery 1 Belgrade 1994, 129.The appearance of the lily on Byzantine imperial coins is recorded after 1204, whereas during the time of the fi rst Paleologues, this motive becomes more frequent and diverse, signifying not only victory but also the sovereignty and legitimacy of the new dynasty (Marjanović-Dušanić, op.cit., 129-130).