Inscription in Old Slavonic: АЗЪ ВИДЕХЪ И СВИДЕТЕЛСТВО ВА ОНЕН СЕ АГНЕ[ТЦЪ БОЖИЙ ВЗЕМ[ЛЯЙ ГРЕХИ МИРА] ‘I saw and witnessed concerning him, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’

Feast Day(s): 7th January (Synaxis), 24th June (Nativity), 29th August (Beheading)

John the Baptist is depicted in the traditional attire of a desert ascetic such as the Prophet Elijah. The artist employs an attractive range of ochres and warm greys to offset the splash of red cinnabar at the centre. John holds a paten (in Orthodoxy a diskos) containing Christ as the Eucharistic Lamb of God. John is turned to his right corresponding to his place in a Deesis group. This iconography was developed in the mid-sixteenth century in the light of contemporary theological ideas and become widespread in the seventeenth century and later.