Icon - Mandylion Christ - Wood

Beautiful and imposing Orthodox icon of the 19th century depicting the Holy Face of Christ, also called Mandylion or Spas Nerukotvorny (Спас Нерукотворный), literally “the Savior not made by human hands”.

This representation belongs to one of the oldest and most venerated iconographic traditions of Eastern Christianity. According to tradition, the face of Christ is said to have miraculously imprinted on a cloth, thus constituting an acheiropoietic image, that is, not created by human hand.

Christ is depicted frontally, his face imbued with gravity and serenity, framed by brown hair falling symmetrically on each side. His penetrating gaze, the delicate modelling of the flesh tones and the finesse of the features testify to careful execution.

The head stands out on a wide golden cruciform halo, surrounded by a green cloth gently pleated and tied at the upper ends. The whole is set in a recessed pictorial field (kovcheg), bounded by broad ochre-toned borders.

In the lower part there is an inscription in Church Slavonic, “Нерукотворенный образъ Гднь”, designating the Holy Face of the Lord not made by human hands.

The composition is distinguished by the harmony of its colors, the quality of its drawing and the particularly expressive presence of Christ’s face.

Provenance: old collection in Lithuania.