MacDougall's Russian Art Auctions 27-30 May 2012
27 May 2012
* 428. THE MIRACLE OF ARCHANGEL MICHAEL AT CHONAE IN A SILVER-GILT OKLAD AND WOODEN KIOT
CIRCA 1900, OIL ON ZINC, OKLAD STAMPED WITH MARK OF IVAN MOROZOV
IN CYRILLIC UNDER IMPERIAL WARRANT, MAKER’S MARK NNT (?) IN CYRILLIC .
69 by 42 cm (with kiot).
25,000–30,000 GBP
The subject of the painted image is the Archangel Michael’s best
known miracle (commemorated on 6th September) that took place in Colossae or Chonae (in Old Church Slavonic: Khony) in Phrygia in Asia Minor, when the Archangel saved his church from destruction by pagans. In Moscow, this event was embodied in the Kremlin Monastery of the Miracle, with its cathedral church
dedicated to the Archangel Michael’s Miracle at Khony.
The icon, which is executed in a painterly manner and decorated with a silver frame, is housed in a carved wooden kiot or icon-case and was part of a church interior at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. It was common at that time for interior spaces, including those in churches, to have an integrated design, with the
creative thinking of the artist and architect embracing everything down to the smallest detail, thus ensuring stylistic unity in the execution of the iconostasis, individual kiot cases, processional banners, lamps, candlesticks and so on.
In its artistic design, this icon is very close to the iconostasis ensembles in the church of St Mary Magdalene, the Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem and the family chapel of the Holy Martyr Tsarina Alexandra.
The silver frame was made in the workshop of Ivan Evdokimovich Morozov, supplier to the Imperial Court, the carved wooden kiot
has grandiose ornamentation, although now missing its commemorative plaque. Stylistically, this piece may be regarded as belonging to the development in Russian art that took place in the work of the eminent carver V.P. Shutov and the architects I.P. Ropet and V.A. Hartman.
Notes on symbols:
* Indicates 5% Import Duty Charge applies.
Ω Indicates 20% Import Duty Charge applies.
§ Indicates Artist's Resale Right applies.
† Indicates Standard VAT scheme applies, and the rate of 20% VAT will be charged on both hammer price and premium.