Portable Triptych Icon

Creator Name

Cultural Context

Byzantium, Russia, Moscow?, Byzantine period, 17th century

Date

1600s

Source

Cleveland Museum of Art

About the work

Cleveland Museum of Art Object Description

This triptych icon was probably commissioned by a lay person for private prayer and meditation. It could be folded and shut when not in use. The scenes represented from left to right are: The Crucifixion (left); The Resurrection and Anastasis (center); and Adoration of the Miracle-Working Icon of the Vladimir Mother of God (right). Small portable icons such as this were common to later Russian religious practice.

Work details

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Title

Portable Triptych Icon

Creator

Worktype

Painting

Cultural Context

Byzantium, Russia, Moscow?, Byzantine period, 17th century

Material

painted wood panel within enameled brass frame

Dimensions

Unframed: 6.5 x 6 x 0.2 cm (2 9/16 x 2 3/8 x 1/16 in.); Closed: 7.3 x 6.9 x 3.4 cm (2 7/8 x 2 11/16 x 1 5/16 in.); Open and extended: 7 x 19.1 cm (2 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.)

Technique

Language

Date

1600s

Provenance

Mrs. Harry F. Stratton (Cleveland, Ohio), by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.; Gift of Mrs. Harry F. Stratton

Style Period

Rights

CC0

Inscription

Inscribed throughout in traditional Church Russian (Church Slavonic) with names of prophets, saints, etc. Engraved on the outside of the brass frame is a cross with the symbols of the Passion, inscribed (top to bottom): The King of Glory; Jesus Christ; Victor; Lance (with which Christ was speared); Stick (tipped with acid to aggravate the wound); the initials R, B, M, L, G, G, standing for various personages represented in the paintings; and at the lower center, the Russian letters GA ("Golova Adama": Head of Adam). A scrap of paper was found behind the center panel, but it is damaged and very difficult to read. Professor A. Dean McKenzie of the University of Oregon, who translated the numerous inscriptions and identified the iconography of the panels, likewise examined the writing on the paper scrap and in a letter of January 29, 1979, said that it refers to two brothers: Ivan Dmitrievich, one of the brothers, apparently presented this icon as a gift to his younger brother.

Location

Source

Cleveland Museum of Art

Subject

Topic

All Works in Curationist’s archives can be reproduced and used freely. How to attribute this Work:

Portable Triptych Icon, 1600s, Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0.

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