Manual of Christian Iconography

the findings of Didron on Athos, and especially the discovery of the work on painting by Dionysius, which Didron himself, through the purposeful influence of Simonides it seems, proclaimed unequivocally on the Holy Mountain as a work of the Byzantine era. He thus became, in part, a victim himself of Simonides and of the self-serving falsehoods spread among the Athonite painters of that time concerning Dionysius and Panselinos, who is mentioned in his writing. It does not seem unlikely to me, at least, that the manuscript of Dionysius, which he saw on Athos, was shown and presented to him as a copy of the 15th or 16th century by the painter Simonides himself, with the promise that a copy of a specific year could also be found. It also does not seem unlikely that everything Didron wrote about Panselinos as a supposed painter of the 12th century, on the sole basis of an Athonite on dit it is said, might also be echoes of the deliberate falsehoods spread by Simonides while Didron was present there 1. Simonides, having sent the falsified text of the Hermeneia to Didron shortly (as was said) after his departure from Athos, and thinking that Didron, being deceived, would publish it as it was sent, occupied himself on the Holy Mountain in preparing other false, antique-looking works related to Panselinos, such as the Symais and commentaries on Nicholas of Methone. Intending to continue the profession of forger in the future, he composed various pseudonymous writings on Athos. In the meantime, the translation of Dionysius’s work by Didron and Durand was published (1845). Simonides, seeing in it that he had not completely deceived them, declared himself through the newspapers to be the discoverer of a more genuine

1) See how Didron himself first formulated the matters concerning Panselinos (Manuel d'iconographie, p. 7): "Panselinos is that painter of the 12th century, the Raphael or rather the Giotto of the Byzantine school, whose frescoes are shown in the main church of Karyes, on Mount Athos. It is said that he lived under Emperor Andronicus I (1183–1186). These frescoes, quite remarkable in drawing and expression, have suffered much in the color, which is smoky. It is difficult to say if these paintings actually date from the 12th century; they seemed to us, moreover, much older than the analogous paintings one sees in the various monasteries of Mount Athos."