AER (VOZDUKH)

Creator(s): Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (Designer)

About this object

This vozdukh (aer), with which the priest covers all the liturgical vessels during the sacrament, exemplifies the importance and high quality of liturgical embroidery in late nineteenth-century Russia. It also represents a major commission for its designer, the most fashionable religious painter of the age, Viktor Vasnetsov. On a large rectangle of ivory silk at the center of the vozdukh appears the Cross of Golgotha within a crown of thorns. A medallion contains the words, "Take, eat, this is my body. Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, shed for many in expiation of sins," embroidered in Old Church Slavonic in gold thread.

The central section is an ivory colored silk embroidered in colors. The symbols of the passion and the Cross of Golgotha are in a medallion with a long inscription around them embroidered in gold threads. Four six-winged seraphim occupy the four corners, and gold stars dot the area surrounding the medallion.The ground of the broad border is embroidered entirely in red satin stitch. Six Maltese crosses with two kinds of crowns - the split imperial crown and the Maltese crown - are set within elegant foliate scrolls sprinkled with seed pearls and small cabochon semiprecious stones. Four crosses, one at each corner within plain red reserves, and two more seraphim complete the design.

Object name:

AER (VOZDUKH)

Made from:

Silk -- embroidery -- stones -- pearls

Made in:

Russia

Date made:

c. 1899

Size:

53.3 × 72.4 cm (21 × 28 1/2 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

43.7

Class:

NEEDLEWORK

Signature marks:

INSCRIPTION inCyrillic "Take. eat, this is my body. Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, shed for many in expiation of sins"

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973