The Ascension
Icon
15th century (painted)
15th century (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Religious icon painting
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Ascension |
| Materials and techniques | Tempera on panel |
| Brief description | Icon, 'The Ascension', Russian School, 15th century |
| Physical description | Religious icon painting |
| Dimensions |
|
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Mrs Alexander Tweedie |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Mrs Alexander Tweedie, 1940 This icon was given to the V&A by the estate of the travel writer, Mrs. Alec-Tweedy. Born Ethel Brilliana Harley, Mrs. Alec-Tweedy went on several world tours and wrote widely about her adventures. As her sons were both killed during the First World War and as she was predeceased by her husband, Mrs. Alec-Tweedy left several works of art to the V&A upon her death in 1940, including two icons (W.15-1940 and W.16-1940). Icon W.16-1940 contains an inscription on the reverse which records its purchase in St. Petersburg in 1898. This icon is the oldest in the V&A collection, and underwent optical microscopy along with four other icons from the collection (W.12-1942, W.14-1942, W.4-1927 and W.5-1927). The results of the pigment analysis confirm that the materials used in the painting of the panel are consistent with a date of the mid-fifteenth century. Historical significance: The colour palette of this icon indicates an attribution to the Russian School of the fifteenth century. The bright, flat areas of cinnabar, ochre and green are typical of panel paintings from the Palaiologan period in Russia, and reveal the absence of blue pigments, which were very expensive and difficult to obtain. The size of the panel is in keeping with one of several liturgical uses for the icon. It may have come from the festival tier of a large iconostasis, as it depicts one of the dodekaorton, or twelve great feasts of the orthodox liturgical calendar. The quality of the icon is very good in terms of its execution and layout, and despite some surface abrasion and woodworm it is still in reasonably good condition. The overall impression of the scene is very harmonious, with the figures arranged in two horizontal bands with Christ and two angels in the upper band, and the Virgin, Apostles and Angels in the lower band. A range of mountains and trees divides the two spaces into the heavenly and the earthly, just as the iconostasis divides the sacred space of the church into the heavenly (the sanctuary) and the earthly (the nave). |
| Production | Formerly described as Greek School/Cretan School |
| Bibliographic reference | Lucia Burgio (1-2), Robin J.H. Clark (2) and Krini Theodoraki (3),"Ramen microscopy of Greek icons: identification of unusual pigments", in Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, Volume 59, Issue 10, August 2003, Pages 2371-2389. Georaman 2002, Fifth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy Applied to the Earth Sciences. (Article available online)
1. Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL, UK.
2. Christopher Ingold Laboratories, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, UK.
3. Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, UK.
Abstract Five Greek icons, made between the 15th and the 18th centuries and now belonging to the Victoria and Albert Museum collections, were analysed by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), optical microscopy and Raman microscopy in order to determine the stratigraphy of the artworks and the identity of the pigments used. Together with common pigments, such as red lake, vermilion, red lead, red iron oxide, orpiment, yellow ochre, lead white, chalk, gypsum, anhydrite, Prussian blue, indigo and a copper-containing green, a few unusual materials were identified, specifically pararealgar (a yellow arsenic sulfide, As4S4), its precursor the c-phase, and lead tin yellow type II (PbSn1-xSixO3). Attention is drawn to the complementarity of the techniques used for the pigment identifications. Article Outline 1. Introduction
2. Experimental
2.1. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence
2.2. Optical microscopy
2.3. Raman microscopy
3. The icons
3.1. The Ascension (W.15-1940)
3.2. The Annunciation (W.12-1942) and the Entry into Jerusalem (W.14-1942)
3.3. The Presentation to the Temple (W.4-1927) and the Entry into Jerusalem (W. 5-1927)
4. Results
4.1. Grounds
4.2. Paint layers
4.3. The Ascension (W.15-1940)
4.4. The Annunciation (W.12-1942)
4.5. The Entry into Jerusalem (W.14-1942)
4.6. The Presentation to the Temple (W.4-1927)
4.7. The Entry into Jerusalem (W.5-1927)
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.15-1940 |
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| Record created | May 22, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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