Icons for SALE

St Modest. Click the icon for bigger view

1860-les, the church in the village of Maiki Voden, lvailovgrad region; Strandja school; tempera on wood; 90 x 63 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 32917.

The icon has a decorated frame. The background is blue with pale rosy highlights, which create a feeling of depth and space. The inscription is in Greek.

The icon is a universal full-height depiction of St. Modest with typical features and vestments - pink sakkos, grayish phelonion, golden omophorion and epigonation, richly decorated. He is holding a crosier and a Gospel in hand. The Saint is painted against a detailed landscape with the scattered figures of domestic animals in various postures. Two shepherds are tending them. Unlike the figure of the Saint, which has volume, those of the animals are static, sketchy and painted quite ineptly. However, the figures of the shepherds are full of life and cheerfulness. They are sitting in natural postures. On one side, water is flowing from what appears to be a typical fountain from the National Revival period.

This is again a pastoral scene, included in the icon in later times. The landscape is painted in compliance with all the laws of perspective. Notwithstanding the naivistically depicted, sketchy trees. The image of the Saint seems to have been additionally incorporated among that cheerful genre scene. St. Modest is regarded to be the protector of cattle and other domestic animals and he is venerated in Strandja, where a cattle breeding is the major means of livelihood. Thus a symbiosis was achieved between a traditional Christian cult and the local folklore, especially pronounced during the National Revival period.