St. John the Forerunner

Type: Icon

Period: From the beginning of the 19 century to the end of the 19 century

Author: Unknown

School: Bansko Iconographic School

Dimmensions (cm): 67 / 48 / 3.5

Location

Country: Bulgaria

Province: Blagoevgrad

Town: Bansko

Museum: Museum complex

Source

Country: Bulgaria

Province: Blagoevgrad

Description

Saint John the Forerunner is portrayed to the waist, with his right arm raised as high as the shoulder (blessing), and in the dropped left hand he is holding his cut-off head and a cross with a roll around it.

Iconographical technique: Tempera

The technique of the execution is a distemper painting with an increased content of oil in the vehicle. The carnations of the saint are painted with the "wet in wet" technique. Immediately after the laying of the basic greenish tone, the iconographer had applied also the modelling ochre tone (the carnations, the sarc on the saint's face and arms), having in this way attained the major transitions from the lighted to the shaded parts. The pleats are painted with black paint. The vessel, in which the saint is carrying his cut-off head, the nimbi and the inner frame are gilded with gold-leaf.

Base material: Wood

The base is a softwood panel, reinforced by means of two inserted beams. The ground coat is of plaster about 0,8 mm thick. The line-work of the garments is executed with liquid gold over the green basic tone.

State, restoration traces and comments

The icon had been cleansed more than once.