In The Dormition of Mother of God, the apostles are arranged in rhythmic groups; they face the spectator, but their bodies are slightly turned and they rest on one leg, suggesting a certain movement in relation to the horizontal mass of Mother of God's bier. Their faces are convincingly lifelike, and we might think - but for their classical chitons and chimations - that we have met them somewhere before. All of them radiate beauty, strength and genuine sorrow, which is not demonstrated by external gestures, but seems to well up from inside the figure. The technique of the painter is here the same as in some other scenes - he paints the faces, hands and feet in warm colours laid on thickly, so that the impression of an almost physical materiality is created, while the clothing is light, nearly transparent, suggesting fine fabrics, painted in varying pastel nuances, depending on the light which ripples over them or streams down them in thin jets like molten silver before it is scattered like pearls on highlighted surfaces. The nuances of violet, a colour of which the painter is particularly fond, range from pale mauve to purple in more than eight different tones. Blue - in all the shades from milky blue, grey blue, greenish blue to purplish blue and azure - is also employed to very good effect. Grey is used in a refined scale, with elusive bluish, purple, greenish and pink overtones. But the nuances of ochre are perhaps the richest of all, ranging from dark golden to buff and russet. When white is added, soft highlights are obtained. This rich palette is almost never wasteful: cinnabar and purple are rerely used (usually for hangings, covers and details of clothing). The intricate patterns on the embroidery are always represented with paint only, and the costly cobalt is used only exceptionally (the Apostle James in The Transfiguration). Gold was reserved exclusively for the background of the most prominent compositions.

The apostles, warrior saints and martyrs seem to be painted in an even more splendid manner than the angels themselves. All of them have, of course, very handsome heads and profiles, while their features suggest an exceptionally subtle combination of tenderness and austerity. The painter indicates that their beauty is not of this world by the pale ochre and pink colour of their faces and by greenish shading over which a barely visible, gossamer veil of light is cast. Only the face of Christ in the lunette above the entrance to the nave is painted in a kind of coldly translucent greyish-white ochre. This is the face of a man who has acquiesced in his destiny and waits for the inevitable to happen.

The architecture in the background of the Dormition shows that classical antiquity was present at Sopoćani not only in the conception of the figures and the arrangement of the compositions, but also in subsidiary features. These architectural details include decorative reliefs and porticoes with Corinthian capitales on marble columns. On the building on the right-hand side there is a relief of a young man with a cloak thrown over his left shoulder which reaches to his knees and leaves his right shoulder bare. Turned three-quarters to the right, he points with his extended left arm and in his right hand holds a ball which he is about to throw. On the opposite side is another relief of a man holding the folds of his cloak with his left hand and wearing a kind of a hat. The painter must have seen such reliefs somewhere, remembered them and incorporated them in his painting.

At Sopoćani we can recognize the figures of contemporary or historical persons by their strong graphic treatment. The painter draws the features of their faces with clear lines and colours them with a uniform layer of pale ochre without shading. These portraits are somewhat idealized since they were meant to last after the death of their models and to keep their memory alive for posterity. This manner of painting is most conspicuous in the figures of the Serbian Archbishops Sava I, Arsenije and Sava II included in the procession of officiating Church Fathers. The founder's composition is executed in the same graphic style.

The Annunciation has inspired poets and attracted artists because the painter managed to endow a standard composition and an extremely simplified scheme with the mysticism of light and mysteriousness of poetry, as the Serbian writer Isidora Sekulic put it. The great German poet Reiner Maria Rilke wondered what it was that vibrated in the air between the Archangel's finder and Mother of God's outstretched arm. It seemed to him that at the meeting of their eyes the world vanished, that something changed in the nature of the angelic messenger and Mother of God; they themselves were awed and it was only after that that he began to sing his hymn: "Rejoice ...". The Archangel Gabriel has just alighted and takes a firm step towards Mother of God. He has lifted his right hand in greeting, and placed his lift hand on his right arm in a relaxed way. The beautiful and tender face of the angel, almost like that of a girl, his steadfast look, his graceful, almost feminine posture, and his finely modelled limbs make this figure a superb example of the charm and beauty of youth. The soft line of his shoulders, the nice proportions of his body, the soft blue-white colour of his shimmering chiton, the fluffiness of his wings which seem covered with a golden polen, create a kind of enchanted, vibrant atmosphere in which one senses the exciting lyrical sensuality of a classical ephebe or even hermaphrodite. This internal movement which seems to sway the body like a ripple is also seen in Joseph in the scene of Christ in the Temple, in Adam and Eve in The Descent into Limbo, and in Christ Appearing to the Apostles. This fine combination of the ellipses and curves of the human body in movement is subtly displayed in the figure of the Apostle John in The Crucifixion and delicately intimated in the fragile bodies of the maidens in The Bathing of Christ and in the figures of young apostles in The Ascension.

The master of Sopoćani not only gives full expression to the classical ideal of beauty, but also achives a peculiarly poetic combination of the sacred and the secular. This shows that at Sopoćani Hellenism was not merely an adopted element, a group of remembered rules and motifs, but a stimulating and creative tradition.

The Nativity is set in a spacious landscape divided into three zones by undulating hills. The individual episodes are skilfully arranged round the window in the middle. To the left is The Bathing of Christ, full of bucolic atmosphere resembling classical genre-scenes. It also suggests, however, a sense of wonder and mystery which seems to be felt by all the participants at being present at the birth of the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Ghost. Hence their solemnity and profound concentration bordering on awe. The young girl holding the infant in her lap is swathed in a veritable cloud of bluish cloth; her exquisite face with large eyes seems to express fear and excitement as she checks the temperature of the water in which she will bathe the holy babe. Another girl, shown in full length and clothed in a dark red dress, holds the jug and pours a thin, silver-blue jet of water into a richly decorated bath-tub. To the right of the window are two shepherds, a handsome youth in a knee-lenght tunic and an old man in a grey sheepskin, both gazing intently at the kings coming to pay homage to the infant and at the angels descending from Heaven. On the far right is a flock of sheep painted in rapid brush-strokes, with a freshness and directness that testify to a sure hand and an observant eye. In the central part of the composition Mother of God, dressed in a purple-crimson cloak, rests on a couch, looking attentively at her baby, whom the kings, guided by the star, are approaching with gifts. While Mary's face is beautiful, young and ennobled by love, Joseph is confronted by the loneliness of a superfluous person. Having become grey in that night of waking and meditation, he turns his back on the main scene, not noticing that a silverish-violet dust is falling upon his hair, clothes and face.

A closer analysis of the Sopoćani frescoes shows the vision and style of the main painter so compelling that he succeeded in bringing out the best qualities of his assistants. However, a more experienced eye notices that the figures of the prophets, martyrs and Evangelists in the highest zones are more rigid, the outlines are more emphasized, and the modelling is partly achieved by thick parallel brush strokes. Traces of 12th- and early 13th-century art are still evident here. In some paintings we notice similarities with the frescoes from the Church of the Acheiropoietos in Salonica, which date from c. 1225 - 1230. There are also some analogies with the frescoes of the earlier paintings in the Church of St. Mary (Bogorodica Ljeviska) in Prizren and in the Church of St. Nicholas at Studenica.

The Baptism of Christ in the southern choir, the earliest fresco, has been only partly preserved. The layer of mortar on which it was painted is partly covered by the adjacent composition of The Hospitality of Abraham. The heads in The Baptism are somewhat cruder, as if this aristocratic art of idealized forms was influenced by the monastic-expressionistic emphasis on the inner drama. Some analogies with it can be found in the frescoes at Psahne in Euboea (1245) and in the paintings at Kranidi on the Peloponnese (1244).

It should be mentioned that the founder's composition which is now in the church is not the original one. The original painting was replaced for some reason by a later composition, painted by a less gifted artist less refined colourist. Especially striking is the beautiful head of Mother of God. Her face with tender features radiates warm light, which is set off by her azure head-scarf. It is assumed that this new composition was painted some time before 1275, for King Stephen Urosh I the Great (as his biographer Archbishop Danilo II calls him) died in that year.

The old narthex was probably painted in the seventh decade of the 13th century, soon after the completion of the nave. Although we do not know the exact year in which the painting began or when it was finished, the relevant historical evidence can help us to date these frescoes approximately. We know that Bishop Sava II became Archbishop of Serbia in 1263. and sence he is shown on the wall in the sanctuary as an archbishop, the frescoes could not have been painted before that date. Supporting evidence is provided by the founder's composition, especially by the age of the founder's sons, and this also points to a date between 1265 and 1268.

The painters of the old narthex were probably the assistants of the main artist, whose instructions they followed. They could draw comparatively well, as is shown by the skilfully executed connecting lines and curves which give a certain "undulating'' mobility to their forms (Potiphar's wife and Joseph, Jacob's Chariot, Jacob Enthroned), but their range of colours is considerably more limited. These painters knew how to use the effects of light, but they could not impart fluidity and softness to their forms. Their figures are compact, firm and strike us, even when they are represented in movement, as sculptures on which light shines with a metallic glint. Unlike their master, they lacked the feeling for idealized and monumental forms.

The programme of the decoration of the outer narthex was a detailed one. Sopoćani was probably a cathedral church, and as such it required a specific type of subject-matter. The four walls of the outer narthex illustrate four vast themes, meant to instruct, warn and remind both the believers and the bishop. The west wall tells the story of Joseph in sixteen episodes. The narration is very lively, dramatic, full of unexpected details and clever artistic solutions. The scenes, arranged in a continuous sequence, are almost literal illustrations of the written story, the painting thereby being subordinated to the religious message. These new tendencies which became apparent towards the end of the 13th century were to become dominant in the ert of the age of the Palaeologues.