Icon, 'The Presentation in the Temple', Greek School, 18th century or possibly early 20th century

Tempera painting

Purchased, 1927
Bought for £10. Received from J. Stuart Hay Esq, 9 Chester Place, W.2.

This icon is one of four panels which were purchased from Stuart Hay and Leonard Bower for £10 each in 1927. The transactions are well recorded in the Registred Papers of the V&A and are interesting because of the great deal of information regarding the place of origin of the icons. The panels are known to have come from the town of Gumulgina in Macedonia, (present day Komotini in Greece), and while they are often described as a set, they were purchased in two separate transactions. The first transaction consisted of three icons (The Presentation in the Temple W.4-1927, The Entry into Jerusalem W.5-1927, and The Anastasis W.6-1927) which appeared to have come from the festival tier of an iconostasis, while the second transaction included a single panel (The Baptism of Christ W.13-1927) described as coming from the same set as the first three icons, but which is of slightly larger proportions and of a different style.

Tests have been done to ascertain the chemical structure of the gesso used as the base layer for two of these icons with interesting results. This icon (W.4-1927) was one of those tested revealing that the gesso bases of the icons of the first group from Komotini are unusual in their structures and contain a layered composition not commonly seen in other icons. The resulting finish of the base layer for the pigment is therefore very thin and appears almost like parchment. Additionally, the overall design of the icon appears incised into the top layer of the gesso so that scoring is visible which creates the outlines for the composition of the figures. The surface of the panels also appears to have been heated and the pigment layer has blistered in a manner uncommon in traditional icon painting, perhaps indicating forgery in the early twentieth century. However, the pigments employed were identified in the Raman Microscopy scan and are in keeping with the materials used in the eighteenth century.

N.B. An article by J. Stuart Hay and Leonard Bower, "Greek Icon Painting", was published in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 51, No.292 (July 1927), pages 8-14.

Historical significance: This scene depicts the presentation of Christ in the Temple in Jerusalem and is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox liturgical calendar or dodekaorton. The Christ child is held in the arms of the high Priest Simeon, who does not touch Christ directly, but rather covers his hands with a cloth denoting the sanctity of the Christ child. The Virgin wears a red maphorion over a blue tunic and has her arms outstretched. Behind the Virgin stand her mother, Anna, who holds a scroll and wears a patterned head cloth, and Joseph who holds a dish containing two doves as a sacrificial offering. The buildings in the background create the architectural space of the Temple, and denote a sacred place, although it employs Christian iconography in this construction of the Jewish Temple. The icon probably comes from the ‘festival tier’ of an iconostasis, or icon screen which separates the sanctuary of an orthodox church from the nave in which the people stand. The festival tier would have held twelve icons of the same dimensions which depict the dodekaorton.

W.4-1927