**Originally Listed At $2250**

Russia, ca. 19th century rendered in traditional Byzantine style favored by Old Believers of the 19th century, an icon depicting Eastern Orthodoxy's Saint John the Forerunner (John the Baptist in Western Christianity) in egg tempera and gilt on wood. In the New Testament, Saint John was the forerunner of Christ’s earthly ministry, hence the name. In this composition he wears a camel hair shirt and clutches a scroll of Matthew 3:2 “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” with his left hand. His right hand offers a benediction. Size: 14.5" W x 18" H (36.8 cm x 45.7 cm).

St. John the Forerunner's halo, the wavy yarns of his camel hair shirt, and the letters on the roundels flanking his halo are all beautifully delineated in gold leaf. The traditional half-length depiction is set against a creamy white ground with a rich red border.

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) and the North Carolina Museum of History (October 4, 2013 through March 5, 2014) 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. This icon was also published in the catalogue accompanying the North Carolina Museum of History exhition by curator Jeanne Marie Warzeski (p. 18).

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. 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-Francis & Lilly Robicsek Collection, Charlotte, NC

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#119529

Nice craquelure. Areas of loss to pigment and gilt commensurate with age. Back slats missing. A few perforations, losses, and old inventory label on verso. Wire for suspension on verso.