DOI issue:
Część II. Sztuka późnośredniowieczna i wczesnonowożytna / Part II. Late Medieval and Early Modern Art
DOI article:Sulikowska-Belczowska, Aleksandra: Ikony Jana Chrzciciela w kolekcji Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie - ciało anioła, męczeńska śmierć, święte zwłoki
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45361#0212
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Late Medieval and Early Modern Art
a somewhat typical way of presenting John the Baptist: a nineteenth-century icon from Vetka
shows him in similar form, albeit without wings (fig. 2).40 In it, he wears an animal fur and
a green coat, his head is encircled by wool-like hair and beard. His face has a subtle beauty, and
singular horizontal wrinkles under his lower eyelids give it a slightly demonic look. Written on
his scroll are the words C e ArHtq-t exih ypeyH umpA, hokahteca npsAHx
[...]. The icon also labels John as a prophet, CT bl H npop IOAHNl npAYA.
Both icons feature a noticeable figure of Christ lying in a poterion, which represents the
Amnos iconographie type. It also appears on an icon of John the Baptist from the church in
Torki, which can be dated to the seventeenth century (fig. 3),41 and linked to an eighteenth-
century icon of John the Baptist that includes scenes from his life and saints, a panel in the
Deesis triptych (fig. 4).42 The first icon, which presents John as a full frontal figure, holding
a scroll with the words SKAT KI STNyS EOJKH EO C6T0 AAHpA,
and with two hagiographie scenes in its lower corners, is a unique combination of various
monographic standards. It may have come from the Peremyshl workshop, which mostly used
models from modern West European painting: John’s face and body are ascetic and emaciated,
but they were painted “realistically,” in an effort to show him anatomically correct and with
light-and-shadow modelling; making the figure less realistic, however, are the wings on the
saint’s shoulders and the icon’s embossed, ornamental background (fig. 3).
The presentation of Christ’s Amnos here is one of the most significant elements in John
the Baptist’s iconography, as it was the subject of one of the earliest doctrinal rulings on icons
made by the fifth-sixth council in 692, according to which “on some venerable images is de-
picted a lamb at whom the Forerunner points with his finger,” and it recommended that icons
represent Jesus in his human form.43 Christ the Child in the poterion symbolizes the Eucharist
and reveals the deep ties between John and Jesus and the nature of the saint’s antecedence
and intercession. John appears as a witness to the incarnation of Christ,44 and by baptizing
him he prophesies the Saviour’s future glory and resurrection.45 Appearing on the scrolls in
the icons representing this iconographie theme are the words “Here is the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sins of the world. Repent, for the Kingdom is near,” which refers to the Gospel
according to Saint John “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This
is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before
40 Panel, tempera, gold leaf, 44.3 x 35.6 cm, inv. no. IK399 MNW.
41 Panel, battens, tempera, gold leaf, 108 x 71, inv. no. IK 107 MNW. For a discussion of the icons in the
Torki church, see Aleksandra Sulikowska, “Siedemnastowieczna ikona Trójcy Świętej z cerkwi w Torkach z kolekcji
Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (Kilka uwag na temat ikonografii Starotestamentowej Trójcy Świętej w ma-
larstwie cerkiewnym dawnej Rzeczypospolitej),” in Do piękna nadprzyrodzonego. Sesja naukowa na temat rozwoju
sztuki sakralnej od X do XX wieku na terenie dawnych diecezji chełmskich Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego,prawosławnego,
greckokatolickiego, vol. 1. Referaty (Chełm: Muzeum Chełmskie, 2003), pp. 184-5. The icon was published prior to
conservation (Monika Branicka, “Ikona św. Jana Chrzciciela - Anioła pustyni z Odrzechowej w zbiorach Muzeum
Budownictwa Ludowego w Sanoku,” Materiały Muzeum Budownictwa Ludowego w Sanoku, no. 35 (2001), pp. 24-44,
fig. 12) and was the subject of a Master’s thesis, Olga Tkaczenko, Dokumentacja konserwatorska „Święty Jan Anioł
Pustyni” ikona, XVII w., inv. no. IK107 MNW (Warsaw: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2004).
42 Panel, battens, tempera, gold leaf, 44 x 37.5 cm, inv. no. IK 45 MNW. See Ikony. Przedstawienia maryjne
z kolekcji Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Aleksandra Sulikowska, ed. (Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie,
2004), p. 237, cat. no. 94.
43 Cyril Mango, The Art of Byzantine Empire 312-1453. Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Jersey Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972), p. 139.
44 Corrigan, op. cit., p. 3.
45 Ibid., p. 6.
Late Medieval and Early Modern Art
a somewhat typical way of presenting John the Baptist: a nineteenth-century icon from Vetka
shows him in similar form, albeit without wings (fig. 2).40 In it, he wears an animal fur and
a green coat, his head is encircled by wool-like hair and beard. His face has a subtle beauty, and
singular horizontal wrinkles under his lower eyelids give it a slightly demonic look. Written on
his scroll are the words C e ArHtq-t exih ypeyH umpA, hokahteca npsAHx
[...]. The icon also labels John as a prophet, CT bl H npop IOAHNl npAYA.
Both icons feature a noticeable figure of Christ lying in a poterion, which represents the
Amnos iconographie type. It also appears on an icon of John the Baptist from the church in
Torki, which can be dated to the seventeenth century (fig. 3),41 and linked to an eighteenth-
century icon of John the Baptist that includes scenes from his life and saints, a panel in the
Deesis triptych (fig. 4).42 The first icon, which presents John as a full frontal figure, holding
a scroll with the words SKAT KI STNyS EOJKH EO C6T0 AAHpA,
and with two hagiographie scenes in its lower corners, is a unique combination of various
monographic standards. It may have come from the Peremyshl workshop, which mostly used
models from modern West European painting: John’s face and body are ascetic and emaciated,
but they were painted “realistically,” in an effort to show him anatomically correct and with
light-and-shadow modelling; making the figure less realistic, however, are the wings on the
saint’s shoulders and the icon’s embossed, ornamental background (fig. 3).
The presentation of Christ’s Amnos here is one of the most significant elements in John
the Baptist’s iconography, as it was the subject of one of the earliest doctrinal rulings on icons
made by the fifth-sixth council in 692, according to which “on some venerable images is de-
picted a lamb at whom the Forerunner points with his finger,” and it recommended that icons
represent Jesus in his human form.43 Christ the Child in the poterion symbolizes the Eucharist
and reveals the deep ties between John and Jesus and the nature of the saint’s antecedence
and intercession. John appears as a witness to the incarnation of Christ,44 and by baptizing
him he prophesies the Saviour’s future glory and resurrection.45 Appearing on the scrolls in
the icons representing this iconographie theme are the words “Here is the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sins of the world. Repent, for the Kingdom is near,” which refers to the Gospel
according to Saint John “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This
is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before
40 Panel, tempera, gold leaf, 44.3 x 35.6 cm, inv. no. IK399 MNW.
41 Panel, battens, tempera, gold leaf, 108 x 71, inv. no. IK 107 MNW. For a discussion of the icons in the
Torki church, see Aleksandra Sulikowska, “Siedemnastowieczna ikona Trójcy Świętej z cerkwi w Torkach z kolekcji
Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (Kilka uwag na temat ikonografii Starotestamentowej Trójcy Świętej w ma-
larstwie cerkiewnym dawnej Rzeczypospolitej),” in Do piękna nadprzyrodzonego. Sesja naukowa na temat rozwoju
sztuki sakralnej od X do XX wieku na terenie dawnych diecezji chełmskich Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego,prawosławnego,
greckokatolickiego, vol. 1. Referaty (Chełm: Muzeum Chełmskie, 2003), pp. 184-5. The icon was published prior to
conservation (Monika Branicka, “Ikona św. Jana Chrzciciela - Anioła pustyni z Odrzechowej w zbiorach Muzeum
Budownictwa Ludowego w Sanoku,” Materiały Muzeum Budownictwa Ludowego w Sanoku, no. 35 (2001), pp. 24-44,
fig. 12) and was the subject of a Master’s thesis, Olga Tkaczenko, Dokumentacja konserwatorska „Święty Jan Anioł
Pustyni” ikona, XVII w., inv. no. IK107 MNW (Warsaw: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2004).
42 Panel, battens, tempera, gold leaf, 44 x 37.5 cm, inv. no. IK 45 MNW. See Ikony. Przedstawienia maryjne
z kolekcji Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Aleksandra Sulikowska, ed. (Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie,
2004), p. 237, cat. no. 94.
43 Cyril Mango, The Art of Byzantine Empire 312-1453. Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Jersey Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972), p. 139.
44 Corrigan, op. cit., p. 3.
45 Ibid., p. 6.