Great holidays

The presented fragment of an icon with depictions of the Great Feasts of the liturgical year is a half of a folding polyptych. In the 18th c., the production of folding icons reached a high technical and artistic standard in the workshops of the Old Believers, who did not accept the liturgical reform and since the middle of the 17th c., protected themselves from persecution in the wilderness of northern Russia. The workshops producing objects of worship established on the Russian coast operated under the protection of the Vyg hermitage near the city of Povenets. The Vyg products became popular throughout Russia and were imitated by other Russian workshops in the 19th c. One of the most characteristic types of icons popularised by the Old Ritualists was the four-wing icon produced from the 18th to the 20th c., see S.12780MŁ. Each of the wings, divided into four parts, was crowned with a kokoshnik. On three of the wings, depictions of New Testament events were placed, illustrating the Twelve Feasts and forming a kind of liturgical calendar. Folding icons were often used during travel or in circumstances unfavourable for the Old Ritualists. On the two preserved wings of the presented icon, there are the following depictions: on the first one - Annunciation of the Mother of God, Nativity of Jesus, Nativity of Mary, Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple; on the second one - Presentation of Christ at the Temple, Baptism of Christ, Transfiguration, Entry into Jerusalem. In the kokoshnik of the left wing, there is an elaborate portrayal of the Crucifixion and above the right wing, there is a depiction of the Holy Trinity with the figures of God the Father, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. They are revered by angels and the four Apocalypse symbols assigned to the four Evangelists. Subsequent feasts are depicted on the third wing, under S.12861MŁ. On the face of the richly decorated polyptych, there is the symbolic Golgotha with the instruments of the Passion of Christ. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967