Door of the Chapel of Panaghia (the Virgin)

The entrance that leads from the Katholikon to the chapel of the Virgin is designated by a wooden two-leaf door with painted decoration on its inner side. Each door-leaf is divided into three horizontal zones. The theme of the Original Sin is depicted on the two upper levels, while the lower ones are decorated with cherubim painted in a light red colour on light blue depth. The scenes of the Original Sin are rendered with a very painterly manner. The landscape in all four zones of this theme consists of a ground of grass full of flowers and tall trees with fruits on a golden depth. The bodies of the protoplasts are rendered with plasticity and their movements create a soft harmonic impression. The harmony of the brilliant colours in light tones used on these paintings, as well as the painterly manner and the theatrical poses of the figures, lead to their attribution to the Cretan school of the 17th century.