Ceremony and Faith Byzantine Art and the Divine Liturgy Epitaphios cat. In Postbyzantine times it was usually decorated with a narrative illustration of this subject. On the Benaki Museum epitaphios, however, the figure of the dead Christ lying on top of the sarcophagus with the shroud has a symbolic character, which recalls the representations on Byzantine epitaphioi with Christ as the Lamb of God and symbol of the Divine Eucharist. The liturgical nature of the representation is stressed by the venerating archangels Michael and Gabriel, in the vestments of a deacon with the orarion crossed on the chest, as it is when Holy Communion is administered. The sarcophagus is covered by a canopy set on four columns and decorated with a central cross.
Lamps hang below the arches.
The embroidery by Panoria, who together with her husband Dimitrakis Stoioutzas were the donors of the epitaphios, seems to imitate older models.