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| ST. GEORGE 15th century 116 x 54. Egg tempera on lime wood. From St. Nicholas' Church in the village of Turye, Lviv region. Lviv National Museum. # i-1644 131k, jpeg. In the 13th-14th centuries among various iconographic types of St. George (see 1, 4) we can find the representation of the Great Martyr as a personage of the Deesis range, but the Deesis to which this icon belonged was lost. We can assume, by analogy with other known works, that on the opposite side the composition had a symmetrically placed figure of another warrior, one of the legendary saints (St. Demetrius of Thessalonica or St.Theodore Stratelates). The introduction of holy warriors into such an important, from the theological point of view, part of an iconostasis can be explained in several ways: • that the donator was a serviceman; • that the Deesis was created in honor of some battle victory; • or that the donator was baptized with the name of the saint. In this icon St. George is represented in a characteristic attitude of entreaty. The saint is festively attired: the hem and the edging of his tunic are decorated with pearls and other precious stones and his cloak is fastened with a fibula. Such festivity is an echo of the court ceremony of Byzantine emperors which influenced Christian iconography. St. George's image, nevertheless, is imbued not with a secular feeling but with a deep sense of religious meditation. It impresses with its poetic mood and lyricism. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/lviv/Gallery/Room2.html |