LOT 0411

Large Framed Gilt Icon Painting with Vision of Saint John on Patmos

EARLY 19TH CENTURY A.D.

35 3/8 x 29 3/8 in. (5.6 kg total, 90.5 x 74.5 cm).

From the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse; the central image of seated Christ on a blue cloud with gold circlets supported by cherubs, an arch of cherubs represented as fire-creatures above him; surrounded by angels holding the models of the seven churches of Asia, from left to right: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, with their names written next to the models and a candlestick before; resting figure of Saint John below, dressed in red himation and green pallium, a monk dressed in long white sticharion and epitrachelion beside him; panel with text from the Book of Revelation above him; mounted in a modern gilt frame with an old label for 'Henry J Murcott' to the reverse.

Acquired in the 1990s or before.
From a deceased London, UK, estate.

Accompanied by an academic report Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

On prototypes of this icon see the famous ‘Vision of the Apocalyse’ in the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian at Pathmos, in the so-called Cave of the Apocalypse, painted by Thomas Bathas in 1596 A.D., in Hatzidakis, M. & Drakopoulou, E., Greek painters after the fall (1450-1830, Volume B, Center for Modern Greek Studies E.I.E., 1997, pp.215-218, fig.140.