Athos Holy Mount

Portable Icons	2.94 Christ enthroned 1737 Skete of St Anne Wood, egg tempera, 40.1 x 27.4 cm
	This icon is now in the kyriakon, or central church, of the skete, but originally came from the Kalyve of the Prodrome at Little St Anne's, also known as the Kalyve of Father Gerasimos Mikrogiannanitis. Christ in the type of Pantokrator is portrayed frontally, seated on a spacious throne with his feet resting on a footstool. His left hand supports an open Gospel on his thigh 'I an the bread of life...', while his right hand gives the blessing. The throne, done with great attention to detail, is rendered entirely in gold, thus emphasizing the bulk of the figure of Christ, which with its dark colours dominates the icon. The lower border carries the inscription: ΔΕΗCΙC ΤΟΥ ΔΟΥΛΟΥ ΤΟΥ Θ(ΕΟ)Υ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ ΜΟNΑXΟΥ ΤΟΥ Κ(ΑΙ) ΝΕΟΥ ΚΤΙΤΟΡΟC: ΑΨΛΖ (Supplication of the servant of God Makarios, monk and new founder: 1737). The icon raises two main points. The first is its iconographic comprehensiveness and mastery of style, elements which while deriving from eighteenth-century revival of Palaeologan types (Tsigaridas 1994 (1), p. 366), nevertheless possess a personal touch and fullness of expression. The second point has to do with the inscription, according to which the icon was donated by the monk Makarios, who is referred to as founder, thus dating the Skete of Little St Anne before the early eighteenth century (Smyrnakis 1903, p. 413).
	Bibliography: Unpublished.
	I.T.
	Index of exhibits of Skete of St. Anne 18th century

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