The only known portrait of the last Byzantine emperor

Administrators working at the old monastery of Taxiaces in Aegialea, Western Greece, in the Peloponnese, discovered a painting of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (in 1449-1453) mural portrait. This is the last surviving portrait of the Byzantine emperor in a monumental painting, and the only portrait of Constantine during his short reign.

The portrait was discovered beneath a first-floor fresco in the abbey church. The painting depicts a crowned, bearded man with a halo disk behind his head. He holds a cross-shaped scepter and wears a purple cloak embroidered with gold. The costume is decorated with coats of arms, the most striking of which is the double-headed eagle, the emblem of the emperors and senior members of the royal family of the Paleologos dynasty. The crown between the two heads indicates that the subject is the emperor himself.

This is not an idealized, allegorical portrait typical of Byzantine art, but a realistic portrayal that conveys the individual facial features of a man. This was not an official portrait created from a royally issued template, as was the practice of the time; it was painted by someone who had met the emperor and painted what he saw.

Constantine XI Palaiologos’ reign was brief at the end of a tumultuous, war-torn period that ultimately led to the demise of the dying Byzantine Empire. Before his accession to the throne, he served as Dictator of Morea (originally a palace title given to the emperor’s son, later evolving into ruler of the independent Principality) for five years. We know from the Byzantine Greek historian Lanicos Charcocondilus that Constantine’s brothers Demetrius and Thomas funded the renovation of the monastery when they ruled together in Morea in 1449. The painter of the portraits in the monastery of Takshaches probably came from Mystras, the capital of Morea. and a cultural center affiliated with Bariologoi, and was commissioned by Demetrius and Thomas to paint this portrait.