Icon of the Vision of St Sergei of Radonezh, Russian School, early 19th century

Tempera painting

Purchased, 1864

This icon seems to have been acquired by the museum in 1864, however, the price paid for the panel and the identity of a donor is not indicated in the surviving documentation. The panel appears to date from the early nineteenth century based on both its style and iconography, and is representative of the extremely high standards of religious painting in nineteenth-century Russia.

Historical significance: The icon depicts the vision of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, with Saints Peter and John, revealed to the Russian saint, Sergei of Rodonezh (1314-92), towards the end of his life standing before the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Radonezh. Sergei kneels before the Theotokos (or God bearing one, a Greek name for the Virgin) and is about to make the sign of the cross with his right hand, while holding out his left hand in supplication. He has a gold nimbus (halo), on which his name is inscribed and wears the plain brown robes of a monk. St Nikon of Radonezh, the successor of Sergei as the Abbott of the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Radonezh, is depicted standing behind Sergei with his hands veiled, a visual mark of the sanctity of the miraculous vision. Nikon also has a gold nimbus on which his name is inscribed.

The Virgin is depicted wearing the traditional gold and maroon maphorion or veil, and has a gold nimbus upon which is inscribed the abbreviation for 'Maria Theotokos.' Saints Peter and John stand behind the Virgin both with nimbi inscribed with their names, and Peter holds a scroll. Despite the inscriptions, John was once mistaken for St Paul when the icon was on display in the Bethnal Green Museum. Both saints wear a himation over a tunic, an ancient Greek robe traditionally depicted as a form of a cloak on biblical figures.

Above the monastery, floating on a stylised cloud is the Holy Trinity, the patron of the monastery, portrayed as three angels seated at a table.

The first hagiography of St. Sergei was written by Epifany the Wise, one of his pupils towards the end of the end of the second decade of the fifteenth century, after Sergei had been canonized in 1422. The subject of this icon is found in the Synaxarion (a compilation of Orthodox, hagiographic literature) on 25 September.

1160-1864