We plan to have our recently acquired icons on our website (www.templegallery.com)by the beginning of December. In the meantime, here are notes on an astonishingly fine and rare double-sided tabletka.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) incorporates some unusual theological details indicating its origin in a high school of mystical theology and art.
The reverse side, showing Scenes form the Life of the Prophet Abraham is equally rare. As far as we know it is without precedent in Russian iconography.
The tabletka (actually two icons) is on view here at the Temple Gallery and you are welcome to visit.
At the British Museum
Recently put on display in Room 46 without fanfare or announcement are these five magnificent Cretan icons. The two on the left, St John the Baptist and the Madre della Consolazione, were formerly in the Temple Gallery. (Note the reflection of me on the left photographing.)
Nearby Room 40, ‘The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery, Medieval Europe, AD 1050–1500’, has the famous Novgorod School ‘Black George’ and half a dozen important Byzantine icons including the Triumph of Orthodoxy icon (also once at the Temple Gallery.)