icon;
painting
- Museum number
- 1983,0402.1
- Title
- Object: St Mark the Evangelist
- Description
-
Icon; painted; St Mark is seated in front of a stylized architectural setting, his gospel on, and his writing desk by, his right knee. Above his head in a semi-circle is the Evangelist’s symbol – an eagle with a book in its claws.
Inscription: in Church Slavonic above the Evangelist: МАРКО (Mark).
Egg tempera, gesso on wood.
- Production date
- 1650-1700
- Dimensions
-
Height: 58 centimetres
-
Weight: 2.95 kilograms
-
Width: 38 centimetres
-
Depth: 3 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- In the Early Christian period Mark’s Evangelist symbol was an eagle according to Irinaeus of Lyons (c. 130–200), although later authors such as St Hieronymus (c. 341–420) and Augustine of Hippo (354–430) took his symbol to be a lion (see Galavaris 1979, 36–49). Russian Old Believers from the time of the schism around 1650, returned to the eagle as the ancient symbol of Mark. Sanctuary doors in the Orthodox Church traditionally depict images of the four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Published:
Temple Gallery 1974, 73, no. 31 (attributed to the ‘Northern School, late 16th century’)
Temple 1982, 86, nos 33 and 136
Cormack 2007, 114, no. 8
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 15 Sep-10 Jan, USA, Norfolk, Chrysler Museum of Art, Byzantium to Russia: The origins and development of Russian icons 1200 to 1900.
2015 30 Apr- 22 Aug, USA, Clinton, Museum of Russian Icons, Byzantium to Russia: The origins and development of Russian Icons 1200 to 1900.
- Condition
- Made from a single convex pine panel with ‘kovcheg’; two inserted battens on the back; on the front are scattered (mainly in the lower part) areas of later gesso infill, some with artificial craquelure. The reverse of the panel is over-painted with brown paint. The central part of the icon was possibly taken from a sanctuary door and then inlaid into a new panel.
- Acquisition date
- 1983
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1983,0402.1
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: IC 8 (Icon Collection number)
