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36-Russian Icon
The Four Births
Circa 1825
Egg Tempera, gold leaf on wood panel
12" x 10"
James and Tatiana Jackson Collection

his icon displays four separate scenes depicting the births of Mary, Christ, John the Forerunner and St. Nicholas. At top left is “The Birth of The Most Holy Birth-Giver of God.” This scene is derived entirely from apocryphal sources (the Protoevangelion of James, the Pseudoevangelium of Matthew). It depicts Anna, the mother of Mary, reclining on a bed after giving birth. Servants prepare to bathe the newborn child. The father Joakhim, looks on from the right. This formulaic depiction is also followed on the other “birth” images. The upper right scene depicts “The Birth of the Lord of Us Jesus Christ.” Mary is seen lying before a cave in a hill. The newborn Christ lies in a manger inside the cave. A shepherd looks on as the three Magi approach. Below at left, Joseph, Mary’s husband, listens gloomily to an old shepherd (the devil in disguise) who is tempting Joseph to doubt the truth of the incarnation and virgin birth. Below a midwife prepares to wash the newborn child. The lower right image depicts “The Birth of the Holy Nicholas the Wonderworker.” Here as in the other birth scenes Nicholas' Mother and Father look on as attendants prepare to wash the newborn child. The lower left corner displays the “Birth of the Holy John the Forerunner.” The architectural elements depicted in all but the Birth of Christ (upper right) indicate these were interior scenes.

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his icon clearly illustrates the impact Western European art had on Russian icon painting. While the overall composition, George atop a horse slaying the dragon beneath him, remains the same as earlier icons, gone is any semblance of the traditional old style. In this icon the overall style would best be described as Rococo. The entire image is overlaid with a heavily repoussé silver riza with attached halo embellished with paste stones and cabochons. Only the “flesh” of the icon, the face and hands, are exposed. The oval enameled title plaque in the upper right corner identifies the subject as “The Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious.” The riza is hallmarked Moscow, dated 1844, and bears the Cyrillic maker’s mark GE.