1 Religious Icon, 18th C. Russian Icon, Christ Emmanuel, with footnotes #19

Unknown iconographer

Christ Emmanuel, 18th C. Russian Icon

Egg tempera and gold leaf on wood

10.25" W x 12.25" H (26 cm x 31.1 cm)

Private collection

The text beneath may refer to a passage of Isaiah that Christ read in the synagogue of Nazareth, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the afflicted".

The prophet Isaiah coined the term Emmanuel which means God is with us, and this icon captures that sense of immediate presence. According to Alfredo Tradigo, "We see not a child before us, but the mysterious, unknowable face of God, who is eternally young and old at once, as emphasized by the Church Fathers. The figure's young age stands not for the Child but, rather, for the incorruptible, timeless youth of the sacrificial Lamb, daily renewed on the altar in the bloodless sacrifice of the Eucharist. Tradigo continues to explain that the placement of an Emmanuel icon at the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow, in a Deesis over the northern doors of the iconostasis that lead to the prosthesis (the special room where these holy gifts are prepared) attests to this interpretation. The smooth-faced Christ Emmanuel is traditionally inserted in an angelic Deesis between Gabriel and Michael the holy archangels who protect the Divine Liturgy). In some cases a grand ensemble of angels forms an assembly around Emmanuel. More on this Icon

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