Baptism and Ascension of Christ

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).

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/01/1950	Treatment	cleaned
10/01/1957	Treatment	loss compensation
5/08/2000	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation

Exhibitions

• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.

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