About 1497.
Copy
‘Christ in Glory’ is the central composition in the iconostasis of the Orthodox church. Christ dressed in a robe and a himation is seated on a throne. His right hand is raised in a blessing gesture; with his left hand he holds an open Gospel with the words: ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get’. The background of the icon decorated with a gilded silver covering is filled with the geometric figures: a blue oval and a red lozenge are placed on a red quadrangle. The colour scheme is based on the combination of two main colours: red and blue that symbolize two natures of Jesus Christ — human and divine, the heavenly kingdom and the earth, mercy and truth, the Spirit of fire and the Living water, nescience and incarnation. The geometric figures represent the image of the universe and the whole creation: the external red square is the earth; according to the orthodox exegesis, a quadrangle is interpreted as an earthly figure: the four corners of the earth, the four elements. The Heavenly Kingdom spreads over the earth through preaching the Gospel and therefore the symbols of four evangelists can be seen in the corners of the quadrangle. In accordance with the established tradition of the patristic interpretation of the texts of the Prophet Ezekiel and the Revelation to John, the angel is the symbol of Matthew, the calf — Luke, the lion — Mark, and the eagle — John. ‘Christ in Glory’ is the central composition in the iconostasis of the Orthodox church. Christ dressed in a robe and a himation is seated on a throne. His right hand is raised in a blessing gesture; with his left hand he holds an open Gospel with the words: ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get’. The background of the icon decorated with a gilded silver covering is filled with the geometric figures: a blue oval and a red lozenge are placed on a red quadrangle. The colour scheme is based on the combination of two main colours: red and blue that symbolize two natures of Jesus Christ — human and divine, the heavenly kingdom and the earth, mercy and truth, the Spirit of fire and the Living water, nescience and incarnation. The geometric figures represent the image of the universe and the whole creation: the external red square is the earth; according to the orthodox exegesis, a quadrangle is interpreted as an earthly figure: the four corners of the earth, the four elements. The Heavenly Kingdom spreads over the earth through preaching the Gospel and therefore the symbols of four evangelists can be seen in the corners of the quadrangle. In accordance with the established tradition of the patristic interpretation of the texts of the Prophet Ezekiel and the Revelation to John, the angel is the symbol of Matthew, the calf — Luke, the lion — Mark, and the eagle — John.
The blue oval symbolizes the heavenly sphere, the world of bodiless powers or heavenly host, the celestial hierarchy. Angels are depicted within this sphere. Everything that is represented in the icon around Christ — angel’s faces and wings with eyes, a pedestal of the throne, winged wheels and the throne itself — are symbolic images of the heavenly host. Hence, the name of the icon is “Christ in Glory”.
The icon ‘Christ in Glory’ as an image of the Second and glorious Coming of Christ is directly connected with the subject of the Last Judgment. It presents Christ as a Judge who will judge the living and the dead and nobody will avoid his judgments — righteous and true.
The icon was restored by O.V. Lelekova, G.Z. Bykova and Y.S. Finogenova in the All-Union Research Institute for Restoration in 1971-1975.
