Deesis

Deesis In Greek, Deesis means supplication, plea. The term formed on the basis of liturgical texts, including the Eucharistic thanks-giving prayer and supplication prayers, in which the Church resorts to the intercession of the Mother of God, John the Baptist, angels, apostles, martyrs, and saints. The visual representation of Deesis, known since the 6th-7th c., developed in several variants after the period of iconoclasm when the repression of the cult of icons ceased in Byzantium, from where the depiction spread through the sphere of Eastern Christianity. In the basic iconographic variant, in addition to the central figure of Christ, there is the Mother of God (on the right) and John the Baptist (on the left) - the greatest intercessors for humanity (see S.12824MŁ). The composition of the figures is always hierarchical. On the territory of the Russian Tsardom, which identified itself with the legacy of Rus, a movement of opponents of the liturgical reforms started by Patriarch Nikon was growing since the middle of the 17th c. The persecuted adherents of the old tradition, known as the Old Ritualists or Old Believers, developed their own centres of production of objects of worship, including cast metal folding icons or 'skladnie'. Among the diverse visual themes of the folding icons, there were the portrayals of Deesis. The displayed icon is one of the examples of a depiction in which the half-figures of Christ with the revering Mother of God and John the Baptist were placed separately on each of the triptych's wings. John the Baptist appears here as the winged Angel of the Desert; he holds a vessel with Baby Jesus in his hands, which symbolises the Baptism and the Sacrifice of the Saviour. Placed on the outer side of the left wing, and thus visible on the face of the closed icon, the Cross of Golgotha with the instruments of the Passion of Christ is shown against the background of Jerusalem; it completes the content of the icon without the need for a separate cross. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967