Russia, ca. 19th century CE. Icons presenting imagery of mass martyrdoms are rare. Perhaps the most famous of these tragic stories is the Martyrs of Sebaste depicted on this example and housed in a glass-fronted, wood kiot. The composition is expertly painted in egg tempera and gold leaf with the utmost artistry, its rich jewel tones and shimmering gilt paying homage to the martyrs. Size: 8.5" W x 9.75" H (21.6 cm x 24.8 cm)

The backstory behind the iconography of this scene is as follows. Forty Roman legionnaires refused to renounce their faith. As a consequence, Emperor Licinius ordered these Christian soldiers to be exposed naked on a frozen lake near Sebaste, where they eventually froze to death. In this example, the artist poignantly captures the martyrs’ suffering as they clutch their bodies, shivering in the cold. The men, both young and old (signified by white coiffures) cling together, and face one another as a gesture of mutual support and compassion, in their final moments. Notice that one legionnaire is fleeing to the city of Sebaste, his body entering the city gates pictured on the left. Above them and beneath Christ in Majesty are traces of the forty crowns the martyrs will receive from Christ after their horrific ordeal. Surrounding the entire composition is an ornately gilded and painted border which captures the Orthodox Christian notion of a “Window Into Heaven” – though in this case, heaven is a metaphor for all Christian subjects, even a tragedy such as this.

Exhibited in "Windows Into Heaven: Russian Icons from the Lilly and Francis Robicsek Collection of Religious Art" at the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina (December 20, 2003 through February 22, 2004) which presented highlights of one of the world's great artistic traditions through an extraordinary group of sixty-five 18th and 19th century Russian icons on loan from the private collection of Lilly and Francis Robicsek.

Icons (icon means "image" in Greek) are sacred objects within the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition. Found in homes as well as churches, these painted images depict holy persons and saints as well as illustrate scenes from the Scriptures. Some icons are encased in precious metal covers (oklads) adorned with pearls and semi-precious stones or glass-fronted wooden cases (kiots). Icons are not worshiped, but are instead venerated for their ability to focus the power of an individual's prayer to God. As such they are truly "windows into heaven."

The “Windows Into Heaven” exhibition profiled a magnificent chapter of Russian artistry, the embrace of the Russian Orthodox faith of religious icons during the Romanov centuries. The Russian religious faith was an offshoot of Byzantine Christianity, which in 1054 parted ways from Roman Catholicism. Icons were and continue to be religious images created for veneration. As a focus for prayers and meditation for believers, icons serve as “windows into heaven.”

Provenance: Ex-Lilly and Francis Robicsek Collection of Religious Art, Charlotte, NC; exhibited at Mint Museum of Art "Windows Into Heaven", Charlotte, North Carolina (December 20, 2003 through February 22, 2004)

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#119475

Gilded inner frame shows age/pressure fissures which appear to be stable. Losses to the icon itself as shown. A bit of white pigment on lower right corner. Kiot shows age cracks and losses, but still serves its purpose. Russian inventory label and Mint Museum label remain on the back.