Travel icon depicting the Dormition of the Virgin, 19th century

Bronze casting

Height × Width: 28.5 × 24 cm Weight: 2,370 g.

At the center of the scene, the Virgin Mary lies on a high catafalque. Behind the funeral bed stands Christ, holding in His arms a small figure wrapped in white swaddling clothes, representing the pure soul of the Virgin, born to new life in heaven. Around the bed gather the twelve apostles, divided into two groups. In the foreground, Saint Peter is usually shown censing the body, while Saint Paul is depicted bending in a gesture of deep veneration. At the bottom, in front of the catafalque, appears the scene of the fanatical Jew who attempted to overturn the funeral bed and whose hands were severed by the sword of the Archangel Michael. In the background, behind the apostolic college, stand the Fathers of the Church and Archangels in an attitude of reverence for the passing of the Virgin. 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 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, endured periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.