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TWO-REGISTER ICON: DEESIS AND SAINTS

45 x 32.4 x 3 cm

18th century

The icon is divided into two registers by a thin red band. In the upper register below an ogee arch — imitating the conch of a church — is a scene of Deesis with Christ enthroned at the centre, flanked by the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist.¹ On the spandrels of the arch, on two pedestals, angels with hands crossed on the chest participate in the intercession. On the base of these pedestals two full-bodied, frontal hierarchs, on a much smaller scale: Saint Spyridon left and Saint Nicholas right. In the lower register Saint George and Saint Demetrios are depicted in two separate sections, linked in the middle above by an angel in bust within clouds, offering each a martyr’s wreath. The two soldier-saints are represented on horseback in mirror image. Saint George, left, slays the dragon and Saint Demetrios, right, kills Skyloyannis, as in the triptych of the Virgin the Unwithering Rose, Cat. no. 60. The icon is painted in vivid colours, while the figures are carefully drawn with deep shadows on the faces and the garments of Christ, the Virgin and the Forerunner. The work is assigned to a provincial Helladic workshop perhaps related to that which produced the icon of the Presentation of the Virgin in the – Temple, Cat. no. 58.

CONDITION  Good. Slight damage to the gold ground. The icon has not been conserved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY  Unpublished.

NOTES
1. For the subject see Cat. nos 23 and 35, pp. 246, 300ff.