Travel icon depicting the Paschal Cycle (Anastasis and the Resurrection from the Tomb), 19th century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × width: 10.5 × 10 cm Weight: 333.7 g

In Old Believer icons, the depiction of Easter does not follow human chronology, but divine chronology: for this reason, the viewer sees the figure of Christ twice within the same panel. This duplication serves to narrate the Paschal Cycle as a total event, simultaneously encompassing earth, heaven, and the abyss. In the upper part, the icon shows the moment of the physical Resurrection: Christ rises from the opened tomb, enveloped in a mandorla of golden light. Moving the gaze downward, the same Christ appears a second time, but in a different context: the Descent into Hell (Anastasis). Here, the mandorla of light pierces the deep darkness of the abyss. Christ, with a gesture of both strength and tenderness, grasps Adam and Eve by the wrist, pulling them out of their sarcophagi. For the Old Believers, maintaining this simultaneous narrative was essential in order to reaffirm the completeness of Christian doctrine against any modern simplification. This icon belongs to the group of Russian Old Believer icons, produced in series from the 17th century and characterized by 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 allowed them to be easily carried and, if necessary, hidden, 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.