St. John the Baptist
Type:
Icon
Period:
From
the end of the
15 century
to
the beginning of the
16 century
School: Unknown
Dimmensions (cm):
125
/ 84
Location
Country: Bulgaria
Province: Sofia
Town: Sofia
Museum: National History Museum
Source
Country: Bulgaria
Other source: Others
Object identification notes
The artistic merits of this icon attribute it definitively to late 15th and most probably early 16th century art and associate it with icons from the island of Crete.
Description
St. John the Baptist is depicted full face and full size; he blesses with his right hand; he holds a cross and an open scroll in his left hand. He wears a blue leather garment and a brown himation. The spread wings are painted in red and brown; the feathers are meticulously detailed. An umbrella-shaped tree is depicted to the left on the bottom; his head on a platter is depicted to the right.
Iconographical technique: Tempera
Base material: Wood
State, restoration traces and comments
The icon is in a segmented golden and red frame; the golden component is an extension of the background that occupies the entire upper half of the icon. Gray-white crenellated rocks mark the site in the lower half.
