Beschreibung:

POST MEDIEVAL RUSSIAN ICON OF DORMITION OF THE VIRGIN 19th century AD A rectangular wooden icon with tempera painted scene of the Dormition of the Virgin (Успение Пресвятыя Богородицы) with Cyrillic legend above; two slots to the reverse with wooden mounting blocks. 1.1 kg, 31 x 26cm (12 1/4 x 10 1/4"). Fine condition, wormholes to reverse. Provenance From the Alexandra collection, Somerset, UK; previously acquired by a Russian art collector from Sotheby's Amsterdam in 2004; formerly acquired between 1970 and 1972 by one of the largest industrialists from East Germany, who made his fortune in selling cement to Russia, and was subsequently part paid in icons and other important works of art by the Russian government. Footnotes The Dormition of the Mother of God is a feast of the Eastern Orthodox and other churches commemorating the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary. The great feast of the Dormition was instituted by the Eastern Church in the sixth century and icons depict the belief that Mary remained inviolate after she gave birth to Christ, and never experienced decay in the tomb after she died, and was directly assumed into heaven. The scene shows the Virgin on her deathbed with the apostles gathered around her mourning. Behind, Christ is holding the soul of his mother which is represented as a swaddled infant. In front the archangel Gabriel cuts off the hands of an unpious priest who tried to upend the bier on which the Virgin rests.