Description
This woodcarving contains images of Christ's Baptism and Ascension accompanied by versified inscriptions and framed with busts of the prophets Elisha, Micah, Haggai, and Joel, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Theodore Stratelates. The panel once formed one of the four walls of a rectangular box or cross base. Another fragment from the same object, with images of the Raising of Lazarus and Dormition (Death) of the Virgin, is now in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (inv. Omega 265).
Provenance
Léon Gruel, Paris, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Inscriptions
[Transcription] Τὸν δεσπότην βάπτισον, / ὦ Ζαχαρίου, καὶ μὴ παραίτ/ου παγγένους πλήσει(ν) ῥύπου. Λ[όχο]ς vel Χ[όρο]ς μαθητῶν ἀετι/δ[έως] νόθος τὸν ἥλιο/ν βλέπουσι Χ(ριστὸ)ν ὀξέως.
[Translation] Baptize Our Lord, O son of Zachariah,
But do not entreat [Him] to wash the filth from mankind.
Like an eagle seeing the sun in all its brightness,
The apostles watch the rising of Our Savior.
Credit
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929