Travel icon depicting Saint Antipas and the Deesis, XIX century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × width: 10 × 9 cm Weight: 233.3 g.

Saint Antipas was a bishop of Pergamum who suffered martyrdom under Domitian or Nero. Tradition holds that he was burned alive inside a heated bronze bull in the temple of Diana.This icon belongs to the group of icons of the Russian Old Believers, mass-produced from the 17th century onward and characterized by strict adherence to the canons of Byzantine tradition. These objects, often made of bronze and sometimes enriched with colored enamels, were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability allowed them to be easily carried and, if necessary, concealed, thus meeting the religious needs of a community that, after the schism known as the Raskol, endured periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.