Travel icon depicting the Deesis and Selected Saints, 19th century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × width: 8 × 6.5 cm Weight: 126 g.

This icon is a classic example of Old Believers’ intercessory iconography, in which the upper register of the Deesis (Christ between the Virgin and John the Baptist) functions as a “heavenly audience” for the figures below. In the lower register, one usually finds the name saints (patron saints of the family members who commissioned the work) along with a Guardian Angel. This object also belongs to the group of Russian Old Believers’ icons, mass-produced from the 17th century onward. These artifacts 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, after the schism known as the Raskol, underwent periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.