Travel icon depicting Christ Pantocrator, 18th century

Bronze casting

Height × Width: 12.5 × 7.5 cm Weight: 233.2 g

depicted in its classic hieratic iconography. The Savior’s face, characterized by delicate features and a penetrating gaze that invites contemplation, is framed by a finely engraved halo. With His right hand raised in the Greek gesture of blessing, He holds an open Gospel in His left hand, whose inscriptions in Old Church Slavonic evoke the Word as the light of the world.In correspondence with the suspension loop hole, the image of the Mandylion of Edessa is depicted.This icon belongs to the group of Russian Old Believer icons, produced in series from the 17th century onward and characterized by a strict adherence to the canons of the Byzantine tradition. These artifacts, often made of bronze and sometimes enriched with colored enamels, were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability made them easy to carry and, if necessary, to conceal, thus meeting the religious needs of a community that, following the schism known as the Raskol, experienced periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.