Description
Originally from the iconostasis, or altar icon screen, of the monastery cathedral church in Zrze of Macedonia, this icon is just over four feet tall and is painted in the egg-tempera form of iconography which was borrowed from the funerary arts of Egypt and then sanctified by the Church. On the upper edge of the icon is the inscription written in Greek: “This icon of Our Lord Jesus Christ was painted in the year 1393-1394.” It is the work of Metropolitan Jovan-Zograph, a famous prelate and also a famous iconographer, who also was the painter of signed frescos in the church of St. Andrew on the Treska. The use of many pale, short lines, and also gentle transitions from the dark shadows to the pale ochre in the hands, face, and neck place this icon in the late Paleologean School of Constantinople.
Christ looks at us as Ruler and Judge on the one hand, but Saviour and Life-Giver on the other, as this icon’s name suggests, so that we will be sober in conscious understanding of our many sins and imperfections, yet hopeful that we may turn from these sins, repent, and receive Life Everlasting.