Triptych with Saint and Angels

The exterior of the triptych is executed in raised filigree enamel over a stippled ground with vine and interlace patterns in violet, purple, bright blue, and green. Each of the lateral panels bears a cross in white and foil-backed orange. Three-barred crosses appear both on the outside and the inside of the central, kokoshnik-shaped top section.

Set in the triptych's interior are three silver-gilt panels painted in glossy enamel directly on the metal with images of St. George the Victorious, and the Archangels Gabriel and Michael, all as warrior saints. They are identified by inscriptions: Sv. Arkh. Gabrial; Sv. Georgiy –Pobed. Sv. arkh. Mikhail'. The style of the painting, with the elongated figures, recalls, on one hand, seventeenth-century Stroganov icons, and, on the other, those produced more recently in Palekh and Mstera, two towns now associated with lacquer work. The frames are bordered in panels of raised interlace and leaves in the same colors as the triptych's exterior.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

A la Vieille Russie, New York; purchased by Jean M. Riddell, Washington, D.C., December 15 1972; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 2010.