19th century Russian icon.
"Saint John the Baptist and the Infant Jesus".
Painting on wood.
It presents lack of polychromy. It needs restoration.
Measurements: 41 x 34 x 4,5 cm.
In this icon, the figure of John the Baptist holds with his left hand a chalice and an unfolded scroll. Inside the cup of the Eucharist, Christ, characterised as a naked infant, appears reclining. In this way, the iconography alludes to the mission that God the Father has entrusted to his son. Death and Resurrection, Easter and the Eucharist are thus announced in a devotional image characteristic of the Orthodox iconographic tradition. A legend in Cyrillic accompanies the saint.
Orthodox icons are part of a tradition that has nothing to do with representational painting. In icons everything has a symbolism: the colour must express the inner luminosity, a light that does not come from the physical world. In them there is no such thing as normal space, just as there are no conventional events. The icon is a window onto a world of a spiritual nature.