Pectoral Icon with the Baptism of Christ and the Deesis

Description This delicately carved pendant in a silver frame was worn on the chest by a bishop or abbot. Christ stands in the center flanked by John the Baptist on the left and a group of five angels on the right. Christ, John, and the first two angels are shown standing on snakes or dragons in an allusion to Psalm 73:13: "You divided the sea by your might: you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters." The other side of the pendant contains a composition known as "Deesis", where the Virgin and John the Baptist flanks Christ and address to Him a prayer for the salvation of humankind.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
11/02/1959	Treatment	cleaned

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

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters