Item 59
The Image “Not Made By Hands”
Circa 1886
Egg tempera on wood panel
Silver gilt riza, 12.5” x 10.5”
James and Tatiana Jackson Collection

The end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in ancient sacred painting. This revival produced a noteworthy amount of work. In this example of “The Image Not Made By Hands,” the artist follows the guidelines and traditions of 16th century icon painting. Here the face of Christ is not depicted in a naturalistic three-dimensional style, but in a nonrealistic, stylized manner intended to reveal the spiritual nature of the figure depicted, rather than accurate anatomical detail. Everything is abstracted from reality to depict a transfigured, timeless world in which material laws of form and substance are transcended. It is overlaid with a silver-gilt repoussé and chased riza, hallmarked Moscow, and dated 1886. It displays the Cyrillic maker’s mark of Pavel Ovchinnikov under the Imperial Warrant. Ovchinnikov was a celebrated silversmith whose company was granted the Imperial Warrant, allowing his firm to produce items for the Imperial Family.