016 

Triptich: Virgin and Saints


Number: 016 Period: 18th century
Name: Triptich: Virgin and Saints Size: 34,5 x 26,5
Origin: Greece Price: sold


In the central panel of this Greek triptych is the theme of The “Unfading Rose” .

Mother and Child are regally dressed and crowned, and the child Jesus holds the scepter and orb of a king.  At right is a vase of flowers. Mary and the child Jesus are placed upon a huge blooming rose.

Mary holds a rosebud in her right hand, and in her left hand, that grasps the child Jesus, she also holds an ear of grain, an element taken from this line:

Στάχυν η βλαστήσασα τόν θείον, ως χώρα ανήροτος σαφώς,
From you, like untilled land, grew the divine ear of grain

The “divine ear of grain” is Jesus.

Above Mary’s left shoulder (barely visible ) is a star, and it is balanced by the sun (with a face) above the left shoulder of the child.

Χαίρε άστρον άδυτον, εισάγον κόσμω, τόν μέγαν Ήλιον
Hail, unsetting star that brings into the world the great Sun

The “great Sun” is Jesus, called the “Sun of Righteousness.”

At left is the usual vase of blooming flowers, and at right a kind of incense vessel:

χαίρε σκεύος, μύρον τό ακένωτον, επί σέ κενωθέν εισδεξάμενον.
Hail, vessel, the inexhaustible Myrrh, emptied out upon you

Two angels (Michael and Gabriel by tradition) are at upper left and right.

At the left panel at the top are two bishop saints, as we know from their garments and the Gospels they hold.  The name inscription on the left fellow is not clear; we might guess that he is Spyridon.  That on the right is legible as Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΑΘΑΗΑΣΙΟΣ — HO HAGIOS ATHANASIOS — “THE HOLY ATHANASIOS”

Below him, the inscription and form clearly identify Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ — HO HAGIOS GEORGIOS — “THE HOLY GEORGIOS [George]”

On the right panel: That at left is Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΗΙΚΟΛΑΟΣ — HO HAGIOS NIKOLAOS — “THE HOLY NICHOLAS”; that at right is Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΧΑΡΑΛΑΜΠΙΟΣ  HO HAGIOS KHARALAMPIOS —  “THE HOLY KHARALAMPIOS.”  And Below them is  Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ — HO HAGIOS DEMETRIOS — “THE HOLY DEMETRIOS [Demetrius]”

https://russianicons.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/the-unfading-flower-in-greek-and-russian-iconography/



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