Icon - Deesis - Patinated bronze

Shipped only within the EU.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX TRAVEL TRIPTYCH (SKLADEN)
Cast bronze, Russia, second half of the 19th century
Dimensions: 7.5 × 19.5 cm (open)
Weight: 357 g

Rare Russian Orthodox folding triptych ("skladen"), made by casting in bronze/brass of the Old Believers tradition, decorated in deep relief with Byzantine-Russian canonical representations and inscriptions in Church Slavonic, Old Cyrillic alphabet.

The central panel represents Christ Pantocrator, blessing and holding the open Gospel. Around the halo appear the sacred abbreviations:
• "ІС ХС" = "Jesus Christ"
• "Ѡ Н" = "He who is" (the Byzantine theological formula derived from the divine revelation "I am He who am").

The left panel represents the Mother of God, with the inscription:
• "МР ΘУ" = "Mother of God" (Greek-Slavic abbreviation of Byzantine tradition).

The right panel represents Saint John the Baptist ("Angel of the Desert"), with wings and the symbolic chalice containing the Christ Child. The inscription:
• "СТЫ ИОАНН КРЕСТИТЕЛЬ"
translates:
• "Saint John the Baptist".

On the reverse side is the Golgotha ​​Cross with the symbols of the Passion and liturgical abbreviations specific to Russian Orthodox iconography:
• "ЦРЬ СЛВЫ" = "Emperor of Glory"
• "ІС ХС" = "Jesus Christ".

The piece belongs to the typology of traveling icons used by Russian believers and Old Believer communities ("старообрядцы"), highly appreciated for their resistance and portability.

The execution technique is the traditional Russian sand and clay casting technique, followed by manual finishing and patination by natural oxidation. These metal icons were made by casting molten alloy into carved molds, a method specific to Russian religious workshops from the 18th–19th centuries.

The iconographic style, the tripartite composition, the Slavonic characters and the casting manner indicate an imperial-Russian production from the second half of the 19th century, in the tradition of the Old Believers workshops.

A rare collector's item, with devotional and ethnographic value, representative of Russian Orthodox traveling art.