2.131 All Saints
1770
Nea Skete, Kyriakon
Wood, egg tempera, 52 x 32 cm
The icon depicts the Communion of Saints, a theme that forms part of the Last Judgement and had already been established by the fifteenth century (Millet 1945, pls. 6-7. Vokotopoulos 1990, p. 155). The upper part of the icon is occupied by Christ in a circular glory in the centre, together with the choirs of the just. The Preparation of the Throne lies above the glory, with the prophets David and Solomon kneeling with the open scrolls. Below is paradise, shown as an idyllic landscape with trees and flowers, and the Ancestors of Christ Abraham, Isaac and Jacob seated on thrones. Between them the thief, clothed only in a loincloth, holds the cross.
The subject is common in Athonite icons, particularly of the minor foundations, such as sketae and cells, where the All Saints icon is usually included on the iconostasis with the icons of Christ, the Virgin, and St John the Baptist. Similar works have been located in the Monasteries of St Paul, Koutloumousiou, Karakalou and Stavronikita (Millet 1945, pl. 7. Patrinelis-Karakatsani-Theochari 1974, no. 51).