Rediscovering the Christ Pantocrator at Daphni

A newly discovered photograph of the head of Christ in the dome at Daphni was taken between January and May 1889, after the monastery was damaged by a major earthquake and before the mosaics were removed for restoration. It shows that the restoration introduced fewer inaccuracies than has generally been believed: in particular, the turning of the eyes to the viewer's right was a feature of the original Byzantine image. The only major difference between the present mosaic and the photograph is the apparent loss of some dark lines in the forehead, nose and cheeks, but it is not certain how far this is due to errors introduced by the restorers or to problems in reading the evidence of the photo.