Diptych Icon with Feasts of the Church

Description This finely carved wooden diptych (two-panel icon) is set in an elaborate silver frame decorated with pearls. Its outside has images of Saint George and Saint Demetrius on horseback. When open, the diptych was used for personal prayer. Its eighteen small scenes correspond to major feast days of the church calendar: the Raising of Lazarus, Ascension, Entry into Jerusalem, Resurrection, Crucifixion, Lamentation, Pentecost, Saint Nicholas, Dormition (Death) of the Virgin; Transfiguration, Annunciation, Mid-Pentecost (Luke 4:16-28), Baptism, Nativity, Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Synaxis (Assembly) of the Archangels, and Healing of the Blind Man.

Exhibitions

• Shrunken Treasures: Miniaturization in Books and Art. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2009.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters