Feasts and selected saints (A triptych folding icon (skladen))

Iconography:  Selected saints, Selected holidays

Date: XVI century. Late 16th – early 17th centuries.

Iconographic school/art center:  Stroganov icon-painting school

Origin: From the collection of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. The skladen is first mentioned in the 1641 Inventory of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.

Material: Wood, tempera, thread

Setting's material: Glass, silver , filigree, gilding

Dimensions:  height 27,8 cm, width 54 (26) cm

The icon with two leaves connected with the central panel with leather stripes. Inside the central panel is a nacreshell with carved images on the inward side: The Mother of God of the Sign (the image is placed inside an inscription of the prayer «Достойно есть…» (It is Truly Meet). The Old Testament Trinity (surrounded by the words of the Troparion read in the Pentecost Week), the seraphim and the cherub; between the circles is the full-length figure of the blessing Jesus Christ and twelve half-length figures of the apostles. On edges the shell is cased in a silver oklad gilded by enamel and interchanging almandines, turquoise and blue glasses in settings. The shell is surrounded by a quotation from the sticheron «Придете людие…» written against a golden background and the following images: The Savior Not Made by Hands, the Venerable Sergius and Nikon, the Emperor Constantine and the Empress Helen and the four Evangelists. The left leaf of the folding icon depicts, against a golden background, The Resurrection – The Descent into Hell, The Synaxis of the Archangel Michael, John the Baptist – The Angel of the Desert, The Annunciation and the full-length figures of the saints, in two rows – the holy hierarchs St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, saints Pachomius the Great, Theodor the Sanctified, the martyrs George, Theodor Stratilatus and Necetas (Nikita), saint Anthony the Great and Euphimius the Great. The right leaf depicts, against a golden background, The Washing of the Feet, The Crucifixion, The Assumption of the Mother of God, The Intercession and the full figures of saints: Peter, Alexis, Jonah and Leonty, saints Alexander Svirsky and Basil the Fool for Christ, martyrs Demetrius and Theodor of Amasea, saints Zosima, Savvatiy and Macarius Kalyazinsky. The outward side of the leaves, against a green background, depicts the full-length figures of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.

Registration number 2616 ИХО. © The Sergiev Posad State History and Art Museum

Bibliography:

Русский музей. Государственная Третьяковская галерея. Святая Русь. Альманах. Вып. 302. СПб., 2011. 223. С. 400.

  • General view