The sole surviving depiction of the emperor, the ivory pyxis from Thessalonica, was first studied in 1899, though the researcher, Josef Strzygowski, was uncertain as to what imperial family was depicted given that the father John, mother Irene and son Andronikos did not appear to match any known family. In 1960, André Grabar proposed that the artwork depicted John VI Kantakouzenos, his wife Irene and their grandson Andronikos IV Palaiologos, an explanation also accepted by Kurt Weitzmann in 1972. This identification presents problems due to difficulties in then identifying the second imperial family depicted (Manuel II, his wife Helena and their son John VIII) and their connection to the first family. The identification of the first family as that of John VII was first proposed by Nicolas Oikonomides in 1977.
