The Archangel Gabriel is depicted half-length, turned to the left, where the original wall-painting depicted the Virgin. He is wearing imperial dress and holding a sceptre. The original scene belongs to the wall-paintings in the dome of the north chapel of Spilia Penteli. These wall-paintings, dated to 1233/1234, have been detached and are now kept in the Byzantine Museum. The copy was made by Photis Kontoglou (1895-1965) when he was working as a restorer at the Museum (1930-1931).  The copy was probably made on the initiative of George Sotiriou, who had studied the wall-paintings a few years earlier and considered them worthy of reproduction.  In 1931 Kontoglou copied the figure of the Prophet Daniel, which is also kept in the Byzantine Museum.  The copy of the Archangel Gabriel renders its model
faithfully, especially the elaborate decoration on the draperies and the range of colours. Only the facial features seem coarser than those on the Byzantine figure, as a result of the copyist s
using tempera.
Signature (in trans.): "Wall-painting from the dome of Spilia Penteli. Copied by the hand of

Photis Kontoglou. 1930".