Observations on the oldest known icons of the Monastery of King Marko (I): The issue of the patronage of Helena Dragas and the inscription on the shield of St Demetrios

Abstract

The paper refutes the assumption of Peter Miljkovie-Pepek that the oldest icons in the treasury of Monastery of King Marko were painted between 1395 and 1405, as a gift the Byzantine empress Helena Dragas made to the monastery so as to ensure a yearly memorial service for her tragically killed father Constantine. The part of the inscription on the icon of St Demetrios, on which the assumption was based, has been differently interpreted here: it is not actually related to empress Helena but to the military title of Thessalonian megalomartyr, like the rest of the inscription.