The composite icon at Vlatadon monaster in Thessaloniki – its iconographic and compositional formula as well as ideological and devotional form
The composite icon at Vlatadon monaster in Thessaloniki – its iconographic and compositional formula as well as ideological and devotional form

Summary/Abstract: A two-sided icon in the Vlatadon monastery in Thessaloniki, the reverseof which shows the Crucifixion, is distinguished by a remarkablefeature – a small icon of Christ between the archangels, and the Virgin with Childsurrounded by the archangel and John the Baptist, which has beenset in the centre of the obverse, which depicts half-length figures of Christ Pantocrator between the archangels, the apostles Peter and Paul and the saints George,Theodore of Tyre, and Demetrius. In fact, it consists of two paintings, which iswhy it can be included in the rare category of images defined by the German term. Einsatzbild, in which the independent panel is part of the larger composition, alsoacting as its frame. The occurrence of such images in Byzantine art has not attractedthe attention of researchers. Sporadic appearance of this type in icon painting wasnoticed only by Panagiotis L. Vokotopoulos, who was the first scholar to proposethe term Composite icons (Σύνθετες εικόνες) for the category.

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