Travel icon depicting Saint Antipa, 19th century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × width: 10.5 × 9 cm Weight: 264.3 g.

a Bishop of Pergamum, who suffered martyrdom under Domitian or Nero. According to tradition, he was burned alive inside a red-hot bronze bull in the temple of Diana. The element of particular theological significance is placed above the bust of Saint Antipas, where the Deesis is prominently displayed. This composition shows Christ Pantocrator at the centre, flanked in prayer by the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist. The inclusion of the Deesis above the figure of the martyr is not merely ornamental, but defines the celestial hierarchy: Antipas is not only a witness of the faith, but also an intercessor integrated into the great prayer of the Church rising toward the throne of God. This icon belongs to the group of Russian Old Believers’ icons, produced in series from the seventeenth century onward and characterized by a rigorous adherence to the canons of the Byzantine tradition. These objects, often cast in bronze and sometimes enriched with coloured enamels, were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability made them easy to carry and, when necessary, to conceal, thus responding to the religious needs of a community that, following the schism known as the *Raskol*, endured periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.