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| The Savior (6th c.) The bust of the Savior is life sized, a common feature of early icons, and shows a traditional monumental image of Christ holding a Gospel book in his left hand while blessing with his right. The icon has been amazingly well preserved in the dry air of the Sinai Peninsula. The Savior presented on the Sinai icon has a very forgiving, tender face. There is a slight asymmetry in the eyes, which draws the viewer's attention to them. One can sense an affinity between the eyes of this Byzantine image and those that would be produced in Russia in the coming centuries, especially Andrei Rublev's. Christ is dressed in the traditional purple tunic. The halo surrounding his head appears to have had, at one time, a cross and a row of decorative beads around its circumference. An interesting aspect of this painting is the difference in the color of the face of Christ and the color of his hands. According to Kurt Weitzmann, "[the] high quality of this icon rests both on the subtle, refined, and lively rendering of the flesh areas, which still display a full command of the classical tradition, and on the artist's ability to transcend Christ's human nature by conveying the impression of aloofness and timelessness associated with the Divine. Yet rigidity is avoided by a striking asymmetry, evident in the pupils of the wide open eyes, the arching of the brows, the treatment of the mustache, and the combing of the beard, as well as the flow of the hair" (1978, 40). http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/byzant.html#John |