| Summary: | The frescoes in the prothesis of the Church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć in Kosovo, date from around 1260. They are in poor condition and little has been written about them. Only the portraits of the Serbian hierarchs and saints in the apsis, Sava and Arsenije, have drawn attention, chiefly because the image of the second Serbian archbishop Arsenije - is believed to have been painted during his lifetime. The scenes of the prophet Daniel and the composition The Penitence of King David, are considered to have been painted for their symbolic meaning, primarily regarding to the Holy Communion. Among the compositions, one can see that besides The David rebuked by Nathan, all of them are linked with the life and visions of the prophet Daniel [Daniel in the Lions' Den, The Prophet's Vision of the Kingdom of Heaven (Daniel 7, 1-28). The Archangel Gabriel Foretells Future Events to the Prophet Daniel (Daniel 8, 3; 8, 16-27) and perhaps, The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace). The small, painted area in the interior (2 *3.70 meters), mostly with scenes devoted to the prophet Daniel, clearly indicates that the prothesis was dedicated to this Old Testament character. In Byzantine churches, the lateral sections of the altar area, the prothesis and the diakonikon - like the parecclesion - were dedicated to the Mother of God and the saints, in most cases, St. Nikolas and St. John the Forerunner. The choice of the prophet Daniel, as the patron of the Peć prothesis was quite unusual. This was obviously done according to the wishes of the Serbian archbishop, Danilo, who thereby wished to pay tribute to his Old Testament namesake. There are several instances in medieval times when Serbian donors dedicated churches to the saints, who were their namesakes. The donor ship of archbishop Danilo 1 also determines mi-date when the frescoes in the prothesis came into being. As he administered the Serbian church for a brief period of less than two years 1271-1272, the frescoes in the prothesis originated from that time. The dating of the other frescoes in the sanctuary and the naos could be shifted to the period between 1260 and 1265, because the prothesis was not decorated, probably due to the illness and death of archbishop Arsenije I (1266). The new dating of the prothesis in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Peć is also important because its refutes the thesis that living Serbian archbishops were painted alongside of the old Church Fathers in the scene of The Officiating Holy Bishops. Namely, the dating of the frescoes in the Peć prothesis in 1271-1272, excludes the likelihood of archbishop Arsenije having seen himself preparing the Holy Eucharist in the small apsis of the prothesis of the prophet Daniel, because he died in 1266. Since B. Todić established that the frescoes from the central section of the sanctuary and in the naos of Sopoćani originated between 1272 and 1276, one must exclude the possibility that archbishop Sava II (died in 1271) was painted in the scene of The Officiating Holy Bishops during his lifetime. It would therefore emerge that the Serbian archbishops in the prothesis in Peć and the sanctuary in Sopoćani. and in medieval Serbian churches in general were not painted beside the most revered Fathers of the Orthodox Christian Church, during their lifetimes.
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