EXALTATION OF THE CROSS

Creator(s): Unknown

On view in: Icon Room

About this object

In the ambo at the center stands Bishop Makarius of Jerusalem, raising up the eight-ended cross with outstretched arms, while two youthful deacons support him on either side and two acolytes with burning candles stand in the side aisles. In the foreground at the left stands Empress Helena, who discovered the Cross, on a dais beneath a baldequin with a procession of clergy and a retinue of women in attendance. Facing her on the right is Emperor Constantine who stands in prayer before a closed gospel on a stand, an attendant holding his crown and a suite of princes and noblemen behind him. The cross is framed by the dark nave of a magnificent five-domed church that represents the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem built by Constantine. A bell-tower with tent roof and a palace fill the upper corners of the gold background. The figures and architecture are finely painted in a miniature style typical of Palekh. There is a shallow carved luzga and a white polia with triple red, green and yellow filenka.

Object name:

EXALTATION OF THE CROSS

Made from:

Tempera on wood

Made in:

Russia

Date made:

19th c.

Size:

31.3 × 26.4 cm (12 5/16 × 10 3/8 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

54.65

Class:

ICON

Signature marks:

INSCRIPTION; LABEL on recto: MAKARII ["Makarius"] (on halo) on verso: 66.433 Russia (in pencil); Rosso (on label) G8 In (in cyrillic scratched in the wood)

Credit line:

Gift of Madame Augusto Rosso, 1965