The Virgin Nativity Cathedral
Medallions

The Southwestern Pillar, the Southern Facet

Dionisy's frescoes. The Southwestern Pillar, the Southern Facet

In the medallion (75 cm in diameter) there is a flower-leaf ornament against a grey background. The geometrical pattern of the ornament is built of circular arcs of the medallion diameter with the four foci on the medallion circumference that divide it into four equal parts. The intersecting arcs form a “flower” with four broad “petals” which are divided diagonally. Narrow “leaves” are inscribed into one of the two parts of the “petals” (in the outside part at the top and in the inside part at the bottom), in the other parts of the “petals” are fan-shaped “leaves’ with one wavy edge facing upwards. The narrow and fan-shaped “leaves” are painted yellow (ochre) and blue (azurite): in the left “petals” the narrow “leaves” are yellow and the fan-shaped “leaves” are blue whereas in the bottom right, vice versa, the upper right is hard to discern. The yellow “leaves” are shaded with brown: the narrow ones – near the centre of the medallion, the fan-shaped ones – near the circumference. Between the “petals” are four “pyramids” with two “peas” of the background that shows through at the base and shading in a form of a herring bone. The right “pyramid” retains the traces of yellow ochre with brown shading while on the other the pigment has not survived. The bottom and left “pyramids” retain red (cinnabar) shading. All the colour elements of the ornament including the wide border (3.5 cm) between the two thin ones have a white outline (white chalk ground). In the centre of the medallion there is a trace of the leg of a compass. Light green cloth folds are painted over the ornament. Condition: thin surface cracks in the upper half of the medallion. Nearly complete loss of pigments on the elements of the ornament apart from ochre in the two bottom “petals”. Considerable losses of the cloth folds. Conservation: 1998, restorer E.M.Christie.