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Home/ Collections / Byzantine Art / Orthodox Icons/ The Angel with Golden Hair (Archangel Gabriel)

The Angel with Golden Hair (Archangel Gabriel)

Orthodox Icons

The Angel with Golden Hair (Archangel Gabriel)

Orthodox Icons
  • Date: c.1200
  • Style: Middle Byzantine (c. 850–1204), Novgorod school of icon painting
  • Period: Kyivan Rus
  • Series: Angels and Ethereal Powers
  • Theme: Principalities, Archangels, Angels
  • Genre: icon
  • Media: tempera, wood
  • Location: Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Dimensions: 48.8 x 38.8 cm
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Dating from before the Mongol invasion, this is one of the few surviving icons of Kyivan Rus. The work appears to have found its way to Moscow in the XVI century, when it was hung in one of the Kremlin churches. It was possibly brought to the capital from Novgorod during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1547–84), who often plundered the city of its sacred objects.

The main trends of theology in the late twelfth century suggest that the icon was part of a deisus tier — a row of icons of saints and angels flanking an image of Christ enthroned — in the altar screen. The large features, full cheeks, and big, almond-shaped eyes on the wide, modeled face resemble the countenances on frescoes in the Chapel of the Theotokos on the island of Patmos. The icon is even closer in style to the murals of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour on Nereditsa in Novgorod (1199), where it may have been part of the deisus tier on the altar screen.

The distinct feature of this icon is the hair of the angel, made in the assisto technique of gold leaf, which gave the name The Angel with Golden Hair. Thin gold stripes run along with the hair, symbolizing the presence of Divine light.

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