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...
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.