Dorota Zaprzalska at CAARI on 3 December on scanning Cypriot icons set inside larger icons

Dorota Zaprzalska, of the Institute of the History of Art at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, will lecture on Cypriot composite icons and what non-invasive analysis has shown about them on Thursday 3 December 2026 at 7pm Cyprus time. Non-Invasive Analysis of Cypriot Composite Icons: Methods and Results is the second and last talk of the Autumn Lectures 2026 on the events page of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia.

How to attend

CAARI lectures are free, streamed live on Zoom and posted afterwards on the institute's YouTube channel. The institute aims to hold them in hybrid form, with an audience in its library at 11 Andrea Dimitriou Street as well as online, and falls back to Zoom alone when live events are not possible. The Zoom registration link for this talk is due on the events page in the weeks before 3 December; anyone wanting a seat in the library is asked to email librarian@caari.org.cy.

What a composite icon is

A composite icon is made of two painted panels: an older, smaller icon inserted into a larger one. The category was first described by Panayotis Vocotopoulos, and such icons are numerous on Cyprus, where most date from the 16th century [1]. Zaprzalska's research project, registered with Poland's National Science Centre, sets out to catalogue and analyse the Cypriot examples and to date both panels of each icon and the moment they were joined. It argues that the larger panel did more than protect the older image: it made the icon easier to carry, display and venerate, and it set the inserted icon apart for the viewer. In some Cypriot examples the insert can be covered, revealed or even taken out.

What the instruments have found

In 2024 Zaprzalska, Ropertos Georgiou, Svetlana Gasanova and Nikolas Bakirtzis published a study of the Panagia Valieriotissa, an icon in the Church of Saint Nicholas at Palodeia that shows the Virgin and Child twice [1]. Working with the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories (APAC Labs) of the Cyprus Institute, they combined spectroscopy, digital microscopy and advanced imaging, none of which requires taking samples from the paint. The results showed that the icon is two separate works, a larger panel holding a smaller, reused icon, and so belongs to the composite group. The data also recorded the painters' materials and techniques, later restorations and repainting that no document mentions, and features of the inset, invisible to the eye, that point to an earlier use and to its date [1].