Rummaging through my European art saved in the great reclamation of 2016, I found this portrait of my character Heliodorus. As one or two of you might remember, he was an intriguing, mysterious Byzantine court eunuch who had left the imperial court and became a ship-owner managing a privately run fleet. I did many pictures of him and this one is one of the best, though he looks a bit grumpy. I did a lot of research into early Byzantine garb and he is wearing a typical man's outfit of about 400 AD. He wears a decorated tunic, a red cloak, little flat slippers (emphasizing his non-military status) and he is holding a notebook which is their version of a laptop. This was a pair of wood slabs hinged together and one of them is coated with wax which you scratched words into. Heliodorus nearly stole the story from the female protagonist Aurelia, but I don't know what happened to him at the end.
Watercolor and ink on Canson watercolor paper, 6 1/2" x 11", 1975.
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