Description:
religion - Christian; Christ's face surrounded by a halo and gold leaf
Label Text:
This icon of Saint John the Baptist, a tempera painting on gold ground, was once thought to date to the Late Byzantine period (1204-1453). However, research undertaken by University of Massachusetts student Steven Kern in 1981 revealed that the inscription on the panel (translated below) proved a later date of execution.
THE HOLY JOHN THE FORERUNNER
Prayer of ignatius the chief chamberlain
of the patriarchate of the Holy Sepulcher
This inscription identifies the patron of the painting as Ignatius Aritzianos, who was appointed chief chamberlain of the Greek Patriarchate in Jerusalem in 1830. The painting would have probably been commissioned by Ignatius at or following his appointment, perhaps as a votive offering. The artist of this panel was working in an earlier tradition of Byzantine icon painting by adopting and reasserting its stylistic conventions.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1926.11.1 |
