646 - Russian feast-day icon with the Resurrection of Christ and twelve Great Feasts, 1st half 19th c.

Russian feast-day icon with the Resurrection of Christ and twelve Great Feasts, 1st half 19th c. Egg tempera on chalk ground (levkas) over wood, feast-day icon, also calendar icon, Russia, 1st half 19th c., panel made from a single board, on the reverse two grooves for shponki (the cross battens are missing) and handwritten inscription in Cyrillic (not deciphered), multi-panel icon with Church Slavonic feast-day inscriptions, in the centre panel the Resurrection of Christ, Christ standing on the tomb between two seated angels, surrounding it in twelve panels the Great Feasts: Old Testament Trinity with three angels at the table, Nativity of the Mother of God, Presentation of the Mother of God in the Temple, Annunciation, Nativity of Christ with Mary and Joseph at the Child in the manger, Presentation of Christ in the Temple with Simeon, Baptism of Christ in the Jordan with John the Baptist and an angel, Transfiguration of Christ between Moses and Elijah above three disciples, Entry into Jerusalem on the donkey, Ascension of Christ with Christ in a medallion above Mary and the Apostles, Dormition of the Mother of God (Koimesis) with Christ holding the soul of Mary, and Exaltation of the Cross with two saints at the cross, condition commensurate with age, visible signs of use and minor losses, especially at the edges, slight paint losses and scratches, 36x28 cm (HxW) Feast-day icons of this type were widespread in Russia above all in the 18th and 19th c.; the centre almost always shows Easter as the high point of the church year, surrounded by smaller border panels with the other feasts. The term Dodekaorton denotes the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox church year, which took shape from the 10th c. onwards and comprise the most important feasts of the Lord and of the Mother of God; on multi-panel icons they are arranged in the historical sequence of salvation history. The Old Testament Trinity, the hospitality of Abraham to the three angels, represents the feast of Pentecost on Russian icons. In the iconostasis the feast-day icons form a row of their own, and the feast scenes also appear in the vaults of churches.