Depicting the Deesis divided in three panels, with Jesus Christ at the centre, Saint Mary on the left panel and Saint John the Baptist on the right; God holding the Gospel in his left hand and raising his right hand in blessing; Mary with veiled head and mantle, wearing a maphorion mantle over an embroidered robe and holding a scroll; Saint John, portrayed as an elderly man, wearing a camel-skin robe, winged and holding a bowl containing an infant with flexed legs and raised right hand, the saint’s right hand pointing toward the infant Jesus, his left hand holding a scroll with the prophecy of Isaiah, while the right hand is raised in blessing gesture; Old Slavic inscription around the figures: 'ΙC ΧΡ' (Jesus Christ); 'ΜΡ ϴΥ'(Mother of God), ‘Saint John the Precursor’ (Иоа́нн Предте́ча); the images framed by a pseudo-vegetal and abstract decorations; the instruments of the Passion and the city of Jerusalem on the cover.

PROVENANCE:
Ex David Miller, Hemel Hempstead, London, UK.
From the private collection of a West London, UK, gentleman, formed since the early 2000s.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Eighme Ahlborn, R., Beaver-Bricken Espinola, V., Russian Copper Icons and crosses from the Kunz Collection: Castings of Faith, Washington, 1991, nos.25819.083, p.50, 25819.142 and 143, pp.63ff., for similar iconography.

FOOTNOTES:
The Deisis or Deesis (Деисус, Gk. for “supplication”) was the depiction of the Virgin, John the Baptist and possibly many more saints interceding with Christ on behalf of mankind.