LOT 2095

Russian Bronze Travel Icon with the Three Hierachs of Orthodoxy

19TH CENTURY A.D.

4 1/2 in. (270 grams, 11.5 cm).

Depicting Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint John Chrysostomus, all nimbate and holding their holy writings, under the vision of the Holy Mandylion; Saint Basil wearing a bishop's sakkos, the other two wearing the usual orthodox priest's garb, phelonia; all three wearing a brocade band, omophorion, with four crosses; inscriptions in Old Slavonic with the names of the Saints, on the Nimbus of Jesus, the letters 'O Ѡ N' (‘I AM’); names of the Saints in the background in Old Slavonic; framed by double moulding, the first decorated with crenellated elements, the second with arabesques.

Acquired from Chris Martin-Zakheim, Iconastas, 5 Piccadilly Arcade, London SW1.
From the private collection of a West London, UK, gentleman, formed since the early 2000s.

Cf. Melnik, L. Yu., Enamel Icons in the State Catalog: Iconography of Saints in Rostov Museum Communications (in Russian), in Issue XXIV, Rostov, 2019, fig. 51, pp.178-277, for a similar icon.

The icon is the so-called icon of the three hierarchs, Saint Gregory the Theologian (Gregory of Nazianzus), Saint Basil the Great (Basil of Caesarea) and Saint John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople. All three were important fathers of the church who strove to clarify and crystallise Dogma, for the unity of the faith, of the Liturgy and the needs of philosophy and letters.