ABSTRACT
If the authors look at a series of circular icons (tondos) depicting the Embrace of Peter and Paul, which are thought to be Cretan and to date to around the middle of the fifteenth century, they will find that they exhibit very close similarities in both iconography and style. This chapter explores the subject of working drawings and will attempt to penetrate below the surface of icons to discover their technical underpinnings. The information given in Dionysios’ manual can be supplemented by what the authors can deduce from the collections of working drawings belonging to Post-Byzantine painters in the Benaki Museum. A cartoon of the Baptism of Christ allows us to confirm how Dionysios’ instructions were carried out in practice: black for the outlines and red for the highlights.
