The icon “The Holy Crucifixion” from the museum’s collection was painted by Timofey Egorovich Myagkov (1811–1865). He was a Russian portrait and icon painter, a native of the village of Teploye, Lebedyansky Uezd, Tambov Governorate (now the Lebedyansky district of the Lipetsk region).

Timofey Egorovich was one of the first graduates of the School of Painting and Sculpture of the Moscow Art Society. Subsequently, this educational institution was called the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. During his studies, Timofey Myagkov painted church murals in the Tambov and Ryazan governorates, as well as portraits of clergy, merchants and landowners.

Portraits painted by Timofey Myagkov are in the collections of the State Historical Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. Almost all of his icon-painting works perished as a result of the destruction of temples, only “The Crucifixion” and “The Last Judgment” in the Moscow church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy, “The Crucifixion” from the collection of the Tomsk Museum of Local Lore, and this work, “The Holy Crucifixion”, have survived.

“The Holy Crucifixion” was created before 1846. The work came to the Lipetsk Regional Museum of Local Lore from the Lebedyansky Trinity Monastery after it was closed.

The icon “The Holy Crucifixion” by Timofey Egorovich Myagkov has a dark, almost black background. In the Gospel by Luke, when describing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it is mentioned:

From the hour the Savior was crucified, that is, from the sixth hour, (from midday according to the contemporary count), the sun darkened, and darkness fell over the whole earth, which lasted until the ninth hour (3 p.m.), that is, until death itself.

On the icon by Myagkov, the Savior is crucified on a four-pointed cross with a small tablet at the top, which has the inscription describing the guilt of Christ. It was installed by order of Pontius Pilate and is described in all four Gospels. “And there was also a superscription written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, ” “And there was written: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”