Who painted Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni?

Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni was painted by tekijä ei tiedossa.

Where can I see Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni?

Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni is held by Finnish National Gallery.

What movement is Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni?

Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni is associated with Byzantine icon painting.

Artwork

Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni

tekijä ei tiedossa

Johannes Evankelista, venäläinen ikoni is an unspecified painting by the Byzantine icon painting artist tekijä ei tiedossa. It is held in the collection of the Finnish National Gallery. The panel is a wooden icon depicting a saint clothed in dark garments, crowned with a golden halo.

About this work

Overview

The panel is a wooden icon depicting a saint clothed in dark garments, crowned with a golden halo. The figure holds a book in the right hand and a staff in the left, rendered in tempera on a thinly planed wood surface. Such icons served as devotional objects, providing a visual focus for prayer rather than purely decorative works.

Subject & Meaning

The saint’s halo signals sanctity, while the book suggests teaching or scriptural authority, and the staff denotes pastoral or pilgrim duties. The dark robes emphasize humility and spiritual seriousness, aligning the image with the theological emphasis on modesty and guidance that the figure embodies for worshippers.

Technique & Style

Created with egg‑yolk tempera, the paint was applied in successive translucent layers over a prepared wooden panel. The wood was first cut, planed thin, and smoothed to receive the ground layer, allowing the tempera’s fine detail and luminous colors to emerge. The icon follows the conventional, highly standardized visual grammar of Eastern Orthodox devotional art.

History & Provenance

The work belongs to the tradition of Russian icons, a genre that spread throughout Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. While the exact origin is unspecified, such panels were commonly produced in monastic workshops and later entered museum collections, such as the Museum of Ethnography, where they illustrate the transmission of religious imagery across centuries.