Feast Day: 15th February

The scene takes place in the Jerusalem Temple. The Prophet Simeon is shown standing on the right-side of the panel receiving the Christ-child from the arms of the Virgin, who stands opposite St Simeon. Behind Mary we see St Anna the Prophetess and St Joseph.

The event from the early life is Christ is based on the biblical narrative recorded in the Gospel of Luke:

And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (2:25-32)

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple is one of the ‘great feasts’ of the Orthodox liturgical calendar (February 14th). The feast originates from ancient times and is known from at least the fourth century. Its iconographic representation was fully established by the ninth century. The prominence given to St Simeon stems from some ancient liturgical texts where he is described as ‘the greatest of the prophets: more even than Moses “he who has seen God”

A work of exceptional quality by a master painter, possibly from Palekh or from the icon painting workshop at Troitsa-Sergeieva Lavra. The architecture, treated in a dream-like fantastical way, obeys geometrical principles that distance us from the three-dimensional world and suggest the ecstatic vision of the divine and multi-dimensional world. The architectural elements, with a veil hanging between them, symbolise what the Philokalia calls ‘the house of spiritual architecture’.[1]

[1] The Philokalia is an anthology of mystical writings of the desert fathers and later the Athos fathers from the 4th – 14th centuries. See Kadloubovsky and Palmer, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart London, 1961) and Early Fathers from the Philiokalia (London 1964).